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METAPHOR AND SIMILE 



MINOR ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 



A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS, LITERA- 
TURE, AND SCIENCE, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
CHICAGO, IN CANDIDACY FOR THE 
DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF 
PHILOSOPHY 



FREDERIC IVES CARPENTER 









CHICAGO 

Clje mnibersitg cf ortiicago ^r^ss 

1895 



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Publ 
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PR 658 
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ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Pages. 
Introduction : Aim and Scope of the Study — Literature of the Subject 
— Difficulty of the Subject — Method of Observation followed — Plan 
of Classification — The Theory of Trope — The Test of Trope — 
Significance of the Study of Dramatic Imagery . - . . vii-xvi 

GORBODUC AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ELIZABETHAN DrAMA : 

Pre-Elizabethan Dramatic Imagery — Influence of Foreign Models 
on Diction and Imagery — Characteristics in the use of Metaphor and 
Simile in Gorbodtic - -------- i-y 

Lyly : List of Plays Analyzed - - - g 

Characteristics and Influence of Lyly's peculiar Diction — Euphuism 
in Lyly's Plays — Conceits in Lyly — General Character of his 
Imagery ........... 11-15 

Analysis of the Range and Sources of Lyly's Imagery - - - 15-20, 

Peele : List of Plays Analyzed - - 21 

Various Critics on Peele's Imagery — General Character of his 

Imagery 23-25 

Analysis of the Range and Sources of Peele's Imagery - - - 26-31 

Marlowe : List of Plays Analyzed 33 

Quality and Value of Marlowe's Dramatic Imagery — Condensed 
Metaphors in Marlowe — Imagery Poetical rather than Dramatic — 
Mixed Metaphors — Hyperbole — Costly Phrases — Geographic 
Romance — Quibbling — The Earlier and the Later Plays distin- 
guished - 35-40 

Analysis of the Range and Sources of Marlowe's Imagery - • 40-47 
Summary : Chief Topics reflected in Marlowe's Imagery - - 47-48 

Kyd : Noteworthy Metaphors and Similes in Jeronimo and in The Span- 
ish Tragedy — Tropes common to various Plays ascribed to Kyd - 49-53 

Greene: List of Plays Analyzed 55 

Quality of Greene's Imager) — His Favorite Forms - - - 57-59 

Analysis of the Range and Sources of Greene's Imager}^ - - 59-62 

iii ^ 



IV CONTENTS. 

TOURNEUR : List of Plays Analyzed 63 

The Dramatic Intensity of Tourneur's Diction — Hyperbole in Tour- 
neur — His Imaginative Suggestiveness — Elliptical Figures — Strik- 
ing Similitudes — Introspective Conceits ..... 65-68 
Analysis of the Range and Sources of Tourneur's Imagery - - 68-72 

Webster : List of Plays Analyzed 73 

Striking Originality and Power of Webster's Dramatic Diction — 
Observance of Dramatic Decorum — The Short Simile his Favorite 
Form — Logical Quality of his Genius — Concentrated Comparisons 
— Persistence of the Ethical Motive — Sententiousness — Personifi- 
cations — Trick of Self-Repetition ------- 75"8o 

Analysis of the Range and Sources of Webster's Imagery - - 80-92 
Summary : Morbid Quality of Webster's Comparisons - - - 92-93 



Chapman : List of Plays Analyzed 95 

Great Faults counterbalanced by Great Merits — General Manner of 
his Imagery — His Three Styles — Excesses of his Diction — Profuse 
Use of Tropes — Chapman and Marlowe — The Question of 
Bombast in Chapman — -Quibbling and Conceits — The Introspective 
Conceit — His Epithets — Personification — Hall-marks of his Diction 

— Poetical and Vigorous Images --..-.- 97-107 
Analysis of the Range and Sources of Chapman's Imagery - - 107-123 
Summary : Chapman's Treatment of Nature — Aspects of Life 
reflected in his Tropes 123-124 

JONSON : List of Plays Analyzed 1 25 

Two Noteworthy Features in Jonson's Imagery — Self-consciousness 

— Diction of his Tragedies — Of the Comedies — Narrow Theories 
of Art — Conceits — Pregnant Metaphors — Epithets — Nature in 

Jonson - 127-136 

Analysis of the Range and Sources of Jonson's Imagery - - 136-156 

Summary: Aspects of Life emphasized in Jonson's Imagery - - 156 

Table by Authors and by Topics of Tropes Indexed - - 159 

General Summary and Conclusions ...... 161-213 

Chief Forms of Trope in the Elizabethan Drama : General Value 
and Quality of Elizabethan Dramatic Imagery — Methods of Com- 
position among the Dramatists — The Evolution of Dramatic Imagery 

— Lyric Interludes — Characteristics of the later Elizabethan Drama 

— Metonymy and Synecdoche in the Drama — Simile as a Dramatic 
Figure — The Simile in Action — Metaphor, its various Forms as a 



CONTENTS. V • J 

Dramatic Figure — Exactness not an essential Merit in Trope — Two J 
Types of Poetic Mind — Strong Figure and Metaphor; Weaker Fig- 
ures and Simile — Function of Dramatic Metaphor — Two essential , 
Classes of Tropes : The vivid Image versus The Sympathetic Meta- v " 
phor — The Intensive Metaphor in the Drama — In Marlowe — Kyd i 
— Chapman — Tourneur — Webster — Various Excesses in the Use 

of Tropes — Cumulative Effects — Sententious Figures — Catachresis ^ J 

and Mixed Metaphor — (Conceits: Dramatic; Airy and Fantastic; j ! 

Abstract and Metaphysical ;\and Hvpe rboli calj — Hyperbole in the j 

Drama — Personification in the Drama : Personal Metaphors; Formal j 

Personification ---------- 161-192 \ 

Matter and Content of Elizabethan Dramatic Imagery : \ 

General Range and Sources of Tropes in the Drama — Treatment of 'I 

Nature — The Pathetic Fallacy — Treatment of Human Life — Die- \ 

tion Fluent, not Conventional --.-.-. 192-202 I 

The Times and the People as Reflected in the Elizabethan , 
Dramatic Imagery: Multitudinous Aspects of Life revealed^ 
Predominant Moralizing Tendency — Sombre Criticism of Life — 

Renaissance Traits reflected in the Drama — Costly and Gorgeous ; 

Images — Violent Metaphors — General Recapitulation - - - 202-213 ' 

Bibliographical Index 215-217 ' 



INTRODUCTION. 

The aim of this study is partly descriptive, partly theoretical. 

I have selected eight of the representative dramatists of the 

reign of Elizabeth and the early years of the reign 

Aim ana ^j Tames I, not including Shakspere, have made an 

Scope of , ■ r , !_ • r 1 1 • I.- 

this Studv analysis of the characteristics of each author m his 

use of metaphor and simile, and in the range and 
sources of his imagery, and have endeavored to state the results 
of this study in each case in some detail. In conclusion I have 
attempted to formulate a few generalizations in regard to the Eliza- 
bethan drama as a whole, considered in relation to the character- 
istic diction and imagery employed in it. This is the descriptive 
part of the work. At the same time consideration of the theory 
and the classification of the figures of speech, especially of the 
higher and more imaginative figures, has been forced upon me 
by the extreme complexity and the elliptical abruptness and 
difficulty of many of the characteristic images to be found in the 
pages of the authors studied. I have however no new definitions 
or classifications of importance to offer ; but the illustrations 
under the several heads of Simile, Implied Simile, Fable, 
Proverb, Allegory, Hyperbole, Conceit, and Personification, as 
herein presented, may possibly serve as material in the elucida- 
tion of the subject by others. 

Some sixteen years ago Dr. Friedrich Brinkmann began to 
publish an extensive work on the study of Metaphor,' of which 

however only one volume out of several proposed 
Literature ^^^ ^^^^ published. This volume contains an 

Subiect extended statement of the theory of metaphor, 

suggestions and illustrations of various points of 

view in the study of metaphor, and finally a minute analysis of 

the principal metaphors which are drawn from domestic animals. 

'Die Metaphern, Studien ueber den Geist der modernen Sprachen. (Bonn 

1878.) 



VI u INTRO D UCTION. 

Among the subjects connected with the study of metaphor 
suggested by Dr. Brinkmann the one most important and fruitful 
for the student of literature as literature is doubtless the study of 
the characteristics and style of individual authors as revealed in 
their use of metaphor and simile. ' It is to be regretted that a fuller 
exemplification of this side of his subject was not included in Dr. 
Brinkmann's work. Studies in this direction by others," it is true, 
are not altogether lacking. Metaphor in poetry has been studied 
from various points of view from the days of Aristotle and the Greek 
critics to our own. And very recently a thorough study of Chaucer's 
imagery by Dr. Friedrich Klaeber, now of the University of Min- 
nesota, has been published.^ In its general outlines the present 
study follows the leading suggestions of Dr. Brinkmann in this 
direction, and its plan resembles in some particulars that of 
Dr. Klaeber's book. 

The study of metaphor and simile in the Elizabethan drama, 
is attractive, but it is also very difficult. In this essay it will be 
possible only to survey the way and to classify a 
\ ^^ ^ P^J't of the materials. I confess to a strong sense 

Subject ^^ ^^ dangers of an analytical method in the study 

of things literary. The essence, the living spark 
always escapes us when we come to idksect. Quantity is taken 
into account ; quality is neglected, and rt'is impossible to con- 
sider all the facts. Especially is this true in dramatic writing, 
where so much is left unexpressed, to be supplied by the actor 
or reader. "Images are either grand in themselves or for 
the thought and feeling that accompany them," as Leigh 

' " Wie zeichnet sich .... der Charakter des Schriftstellers in den ihm indi- 
viduell angehorigen (den nicht incarnirten) Metaphern ? " Op. cit. p. 120. 

*See for example : Servius on Virgil ; P. Langen, Die Metapherim latein- 
schen von Plautus bis Terence (neue Jahrb. f. Phil, und Paedagogik 1882) ; H. 
Raeder, Die Tropen und Figuren bei R. Gamier (Kiel 1887); Gummere, The 
Anglo-Saxon Metaphor (Halle 1881); Degenhardt, Die Metapher bei den 
Vorliiufern Moliere's (Marburg 1886); G. Duval, Dictionnaire des Metaphores 
de Victor Hugo (Paris 1888); etc. See also Professor Jebb's suggestive and 
valuable study of Homer's similes, in his "Introduction to Homer" (Boston 
1893), pp. 26-32. 

3 Das Bild bei Chaucer (Berlin 1893, PP- 45o)- 



INTRODUCTION ix 

Hunt says/ and the quality of three-quarters of the imagery of 
the Elizabethan plays depends, as that of all organic imagery 
should depend, on the context and the dramatic situation or 
moment. For purposes of etymology or of phonology or of the 
study of versification, the method of analysis is appropriate. 
But the meaning of style and the characteristics of genius are not 
to be grasped by this process — at least not by this process alone, 
and in the first approach. One cannot but sympathize with Mr. 
Swinburne's ridicule of dogmatic and premature generalization 
in such matters.' But nowhere do the imaginative and poetic 
quality of an author, the range of his interest, the characteristics 
of his mind, and the scope of his genius, reveal themselves more 
certainly than in his imagery, and the closer knowledge of the 
great masterpieces involves minute as well as free and discursive 
study. In making any minute study of an author's imagery, 
accordingly, an analytical subject-index cannot but be of consid- 
erable assistance, although as evidence it is of course essentially 
corroborative, not primary. It is the Bertillon system of mental 
measurement, and may possibly yield results in the identification 
of literary aliases. 

"The sources of an author's similitudes," wrote Professor 
Minto,^ "are often peculiarly interesting, as affording a means of 
measuring the circumference of his knowledge. We cannot, to 
be sure, by such means, take a very accurate measure, but we can 
tell what books a man has dipped into, may discover what writers 
he has plagiarized from, and may be able to guess how his inter- 
ests are divided between books and the living world." The 
essential thing is to guard against the dangers of the arithmetical 
method. " Non pas, pour nous," as Ferdinand Brunetiere 
writes,'* apropos of the dictionary of Victor Hugo's metaphors, 
"que nous ayons une grande confiance dans les applications de 
la statistique a la litterature. On prouve tout avec des chiffres, 

' Imag. and Fancy, 19S. 

^See his Study of Shakspere, appendix. 

3 Manual of Eng. Prose Lit., p. 13. See, to the same effect, J. A. Symonds, 
Essays Speculative and Suggestive, 238. Cf. also Hennequin, La Critique 
Scientifique, 63 f. 

^Nouvelles Questions de Critique, 260. 



X INTRODUCTION. 

et meme parfois la verite, quand on sait la maniere de s'y 
prendre. Si cependant il y a quelques objets dont le poete lui- 
meme tire plus souvent ou plus volontiers ses metaphores ou 
ses comparaisons ; s'il y en a quelques'uns qui semblent s'attirer 
ou s'appeler habituellement I'un I'autre dans ses vers, il sera 
permis de les compter ; et, de la frequence de certaines images 
on pourra peut-etre conclure a la nature elle-meme de son 
imagination." 

In spite however of the endeavor towards an objective and 
analytical method, such a study as this must be largely subjective. 

No attempt is made to take into consideration all 
Method of , , j • -i • ■ ^i .i_ 

metaphor and simile occurring m the authors 
Observation ^ ^ 

studied, nor are metaphor and simile, according 

to the stricter definitions of some writers upon rhetoric and 
poetics, alone regarded. All tropes (in the ancient sense of 
the word), in which imagination is felt to be present, are con- 
sidered. Incarnate or faded metaphors are generally neglected, 
except so far as they illustrate the peculiar diction of dramatic 
poetry at the time. In general only the more striking, 
individual, and conscious images are fully enumerated. Of course 
in such a method the personal equation cannot be entirely elim- 
inated. Quotations of striking and significant tropes will be 
made to as great an extent as the necessary limits of this paper 
will permit ; in order to save space, page references to standard 
editions (see bibliographical index), rather than to act and scene, 
are made for all less important tropes. The sums total of the 
references under each head and under each author are annexed.' 
From the preceding explanations, however, it will be understood 
that these enumerations are more or less inexact and have no abso- 
lute validity ; but they should be valid for purposes of comparison 
and generalization. If the limits of space had permitted it would 
doubtless have been profitable to continue this study so as to 
include the entire body of the drama from Gorboduc to the 
closing of the theatres, or at least all the chief dramatists of that 
period, and to introduce a more constant comparison and refer- 
ence to Shakspere as the great master of dramatic imagery. 

'See the table infra, p. 159. 



INTRODUCTION xi 

Reference to Shakspere however is not difficult in single meta- 
phors through the concordances or through Schmidt's lexicon. 

The classifications employed in analyzing the range and 

sources of each author's imagery, I have purposely abstained 

from making minute or thoroughly systematic. It 

_, .- ^. is difficult to see the significance of idiosyncrasies 

Classification. " 

in the use of imagery when the natural groupings 

of an author's mental pictures are obscured by minute sub- 
divisions. Such subdivisions make a more perfect subject-index, 
but are otherwise confusing. The more scientific classifications of 
Aristotle ' or of Max Miiller^'or Dr Brinkmann,^ although valuable 
for other ends, would be here not to the purpose. Dramatic 
imagery in proportion as it is dramatic, rather than epic or lyric, 
naturally illustrates human life by human life, and we shall find 
that the larger part of that which follows is drawn from the 
field of human life.'* Accordingly there are two main divisions : 
tropes drawn from the field of nature and those drawn from the 
field of human life. Under Nature subdivisions are introduced 
for (i) Aspects of the Sky, The Elements, etc.; (2) Aspects of 
Water, the Sea, etc.; (3) Aspects of Earth, Inorganic nature, 
etc.; (4) The Vegetable World; (5) The Animal World. 
Under Man and Human Life are grouped (i) The Arts and 
Learning; (2) Various Occupations; (3) Agriculture, etc.; 
(4) Trades, etc.; (5) Domestic Life, including Dress and Orna- 
ment ; (6) Colloquial, Coarse, and Familiar Images ; (7) The 
Body and its Parts, including the Appetites, Senses, etc.; (8) 
Subjective Life, Religion, etc.; (9) War; (10) Classical and 
Literary Allusions. Finally, in preference to grouping arbitra- 

' Poetics, c. 21. 

'Science of Thought, II 480-512. 

3 Die Metaphern, pp. 29-34, viz : (i) The material pictured by the material ; 
(2) The immaterial by the material; (3) The material by the immaterial; (4) 
The immaterial by the immaterial ; etc. Cf. Quintilian VIII vi. 

< How different is it with Wordsworth, the poet of Nature ! A count of the 
metaphors and similes in Wordsworth's poetry preceding the Excursion, made 
by Mr. Vernon P. Squires of the University of Chicago, shows 258 (or over 50 
per cent.) illustrating human things by natural; 46 natural by human; 136 
human by human ; 59 natural by natural. 



XU INTRODUCTION. 

rily under any of the preceding heads certain references of doubt- 
ful, or of double ascription, a small division (ii) of miscellaneous 
or unclassified references has been added. 

Complete authors in each case have been studied, with the 
omission of doubtful plays and plays of composite authorship. 
I have summarized under each author his chief formal character- 
istics in the use of tropes, noting generally his observance of 
essential rhetorical principles, the abundance and vigor of his 
imagery, the chief cases of borrowed imagery, and the leading 
figures which he affects, whether simile (and of what sort), meta- 
phor, sententious figures, personification, hyperbole, or whatever 
else. 

1 have spoken of the complexity and ditificulty of the charac- 
teristic figures of the Elizabethan drama. The simile in Homer, 
or in epic poetry in general, is comparatively easy of study and 
admits readily of generalized inferences. But the characteristic 
figurative language of the Elizabethan drama presents very few 
Homeric similes — almost none of the true type, that is, similes 
unmixed with metaphor, episodical, and prolonged. Shorter 
similes, it is true, are frequently used, but they are almost always 
complicated with metaphor or other figure. Indeed perhaps the 
most striking feature of the dramatic imagery of this period in 
its typical writers is the general fusion, the elliptical confusion, 
of all the more intense and imaginative figures in passages of 
high excitement or passion.' Simile lapses into metaphor, meta- 
phor into allegory, personification, or hyperbole, with kaleido- 
scopic abruptness. "The compound metaphor, . . . where the 
analogy is intricate," of Herbert Spencer,'' is the prevailing, or at 

' These dramatists love to linger over a metaphorical idea and to develop 
it: Thus in Webster's White Z?^z/z7 Vittoria, dying, says : 

" My soul, like to a ship in a black storm, 
Is driven, I know not whither." 

Her brother, the sardonic Flamineo, answers ; 

" Then cast atichor. 
Prosperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear: 
But seas do laugh, skotv white, when rocks are near. . . . 

.... Art thou gone ? 
Art thou so near the bottom .'"' 

2 Phil, of Style, p. 32. 



INTRODUCTION. XUl 

least the characteristic, figure. In a stud}^ which is not chiefly a 
study of words in their metaphorical origins, such figures are 
difficult of analysis and they do not lend themselves readily to 
classification. 

On the theory of trope, so complicated and still so unsettled, 
happily it is not a part of my task to linger, — " circa quem," as 
Ouintilian' wrote so long ago, "inexplicabilis et 
e eory grammaticis inter ipsos, et philosophis, pugna est, 
quae sint genera, quae species, qui numerus, qui 
cuique subjiciatur." The tripartite division of the ancients into 
figures of thought, figures of language, and tropes, is still perhaps 
the best for all practical purposes.'' The present study has com- 
prehended the subject of trope alone. Trope I have used as a 
generic term comprising the principal aesthetic or imaginative 
figures, of which metaphor and simile are the leading examples.' 
These figures it is difficult to classify among themselves for the 
reason that in the complex language of high poetry they seldom 
are found in their simplicity, but are usually mixed, grading off 
imperceptibly into one another. They may be legitimately 
treated together for the reason that a common principle, the 
principle of imagination, underlies them all. To explain further 
in given examples the principle of the effect upon the mind usually 
involves, except in the simplest cases, a separate explanation in 
each instance. Some classification therefore, such as that of Pro- 
fessor Greene,* based on distinctions of degree rather than those 

'VIII vi I. 

"The whole subject is minutely discussed in Gerber, Die Sprache als Kunst 
(cf. the index under " Figuren," " Tropen," etc.). See also Jebb, Attic Orators, 
II 60. 

3 It seems to me a mistake to attempt to limit the term as Professor Minto 
has done (Man. of Eng. Prose Lit. pp. 12-13) to the non-literal use of "single 
words." Professor Minto cites Quintilian as favoring his definition, but Quin- 
tilian says distinctly : " Mihi videntur errasse, qui non alios crediderunt tropos, 
quam in quibus verbum pro verbo poneretur." (VIII, vi 2). 

*A Grouping of Figures of Speech, Based upon the Principle of their 
Effectiveness. Based on this principle — that of the degree of imagination pres- 
ent in each figure on the average — Professor Greene groups the various 
tropes in the following order, proceding from those nearest to literal statement 
and ending with those the most highly figurative or symbolical : Synecdoche, 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

of kind is, it seems to me, the only profitable one. Gerber' has 
pointed out how the principle underlying synecdoche has 
given rise to other and wider figures (examples, parallels, etc., — 
giving a part for the whole); and similarly of metonymy (whence 
similitude, parable, etc., — one thing in place of another). " Meta- 
phora brevior est similitudo " is the time-honored definition of 
metaphor, however probable it may be that metaphor historically 
precedes simile in actual use.* And few can fail to recognize the 
underlying similarity which has led to the definition of allegory 
as prolonged metaphor, and which has made apparent in the 
mythologizing or anthropomorphic tendency that leads to Per- 
sonification, the very germ and cardinal principle of all primi- 
tive thinking and of half the metaphor and imagery in the world. 
For these reasons no attempt has been made to classify defi- 
nitely the various figures used in each author; but any tendency 

towards the use of a particular form or of particular 
The Test of , . , . .u u u . ^ 

^ forms m preference to others has been noted. 

Trope ^ 

" The essence of metaphor," says Professor Greene,^ 

"is that to the literal understanding it is false, while to the 
imagination it is true." The same rule, liberally applied, may 
also be used in the detection of tropes in general. Figures of 
speech in the ancient sense (antithesis, parallelism, etc.) are too 
low in the imaginative scale, if indeed they enter it at all, and are 

Metonymy, Stated Simile, Implied Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Imper- 
fect Allegory, Pure Allegory. Professor Greene writes me as follows on the 
subject : " It seems to me that there has been too great a tendency .... 
to draw hard and fast lines between the various figures. To the novice 
it may have a more learned sound to pronounce dogmatically that a given 
expression contains this or that figure, but more careful students sometimes 
see in the same expression a blending of two figures, or, if you choose, a 
transitional figure. ... It seems to me that the poets themselves, by the readi- 
ness with which they pass from one form of language to another, show us that 
we must not set up hard and fast lines in our classifications, but must admit that 
one form of language can blend with another." 

'Die Sprache als Kunst, II 40 f., 66 f. 

*0n the origin of Metaphor cf. Gummere, The Anglo-Saxon Metaphor, pp 
II f : A. H. Tolman, The Style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, pp. 12 f.; Max Miiller 
Science of Thought, II 480 f. 

3 A Grouping of Figures of Speech, p. 11. 



INTRODUCTION. xv 

too closely connected with the mere grammatical structure of lan- 
guage to be mistaken for tropes. Figures of thought (irony, 
hyperbole, etc.) in some cases are and in other cases are not at the 
same time tropes. The above rule will usually suffice to establish 
the difference. 

Trope, at least in its higher forms, involves imagery, but not 
all imagery is trope, so that many expressions which, within the 
conventions of dramatic form, are to be taken literally, are 
excluded from a study dealing with trope alone. Thus the 
charming flower passage in Act I, Scene I of Peele's Arraignment 
of Paris, involving as it does several similes and epithets, is not 
as a whole, a trope. And similarly, Sir Epicure Mammon's 
glorious imaginings in Act II, Scene I of The Alchemist,^ — the 
passage so admired by Lamb, — are literal in expression, or at 
best figured forth in a sort of sensuous hyperbole. 

Imagery is of the very essence of poetry, and symbol alone is 
capable of giving to truth that aspect of beauty and that touch of 
emotion which convey to the mind the subtler impli- 
Significance of cations of thought in a way unattainable to the arti- 
the Study of ^ , . , ,. lu , , 

_^ . nces of circumlocution or the colorless vagueness of 

Imagery abstract terms. "Im Grunde genommen,". writes 

Alfred Biese,^ "ist jede Dichtung eine Metapher 
im weitesten Sinne . . . Ohne Symbolisierung entsteht kein 
Kunstwerk." An investigation of the imagery of the Eliza- 
bethan drama is therefore largely an investigation of the poetical 
quality of that drama. The limitations of the present study, 
however, are too narrow to admit of complete generalizations on 
this subject. Shakspere of course is the very type of all that was 
great and characteristic in Elizabethan poetry, and perhaps the 
best of the poetic impulse in the strictly Elizabethan drama 
studied in this essay was communicated after Shakspere to the 
post-Elizabethan school, to Fletcher, Shirley, and others. I think 
however it will be found that, except for the lyrical graces of 

'See especially that portion of the extract cited by Lamb, beginning, 
" My meat shall all come in in Indian shells, 
Dishes of agate set in gold," etc. 

*Das Metaphorische in der dichterischen Phantasie, p. 4. Cf. Dryden, 
Works, V 120 : "Imaging is in itself the very height and life of poetry." 



xvi INTRODUCTION. 

Fletcher, there is a considerable falling off in intensity and power 
in the imagery of the later drama. In the case of Ford, certainly, 
I have found this so after a careful study, and Mr. Lowell' has 
noted in Massinger the lack of the inspired word and the pictur- 
esque image. In any event the earlier period was the forma- 
tive period and perhaps on the whole, at least to the student 
of literary history and development, the more important and 
interesting one. 

'Old Eng. Dramatists, 127, 



GORBODUC AND THE BEGINNINGS OF 
THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 



HQ 



GORBODUC AND THE BEGINNINGS OF 
THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA. 

The diction of the earlier English drama, of the miracle plays 
and the moralities, is generally colorless. Figures, and especially 
the significant and highly poetical figures of meta- 
Pre-Elizabethan , Qj. ^^^ ^j^^jj^^ ^^^ j-^^j^ ^^^^ r^^^ interest is 
Dramatic , , . . , , 

J concentrated on the situation, moral or dramatic, 

and on the characters of the speakers, types of uni- 
versal humanity or personifications of fundamental abstractions. 
The naive and simple effect of the miracle plays for the modern 
reader is intensified by the severe and literal plainness of the lan- 
guage employed. One reads on for page after page without 
encountering a single conscious and literary metaphor. The poet 
has been taught or he invents for himself the most elaborate and 
intricate stanzaic and rhyming schemes. But his diction other- 
wise is singularly unelaborate. Occasionally a comparison illu- 
minates a passage : 

Hiimanum Genus. Whom to folwe wetyn I ne may : 
I stonde in stodye and gynne to rave, 

I wolde be ryche in gret array, 
And fayn I wolde my sowle save. 

I wave as wyiide in watyrJ' 

Such touches, however, are rare. 

In coming to the later moralities and interludes we find no 
improvement. The dreary didacticism of these pieces is relieved 
only by the introduction of scriptural phraseology and conven- 
tional biblical metaphors. It is a purely national and popular 
literature, unawakened by foreign influence.^ Occasionally a con- 

' The Castell of Perseverance, in Pollard, p. 67. 

'The English ballad literature also is severely plain in its diction. Profes- 
sor Gummere (Old English Ballads, Boston 1894, p. 309) remarks that in the 
old ballads " metaphors are rare in any artistic and intentional sort . . . similes 

3 



4 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

tinental motive appears and lends interest for the moment to a 
passage, as in the song appended to The Disobedient Child,^ recall- 
ing faintly Villon :^ 

"Where is now Salomon, in wisdom so excellent? 
Where is now Samson, in battle so strong? . . . 
. . . How short a feast is this worldly joying? 
Even as a shadom. it passeth away . . . 
. . . As a leaf in a stormy weather, 
So is man's life blowen clean away." 

The conception of character and the feeling for dramatic sit- 
uation were present in the English drama before the introduction 
of Renaissance and Italian influences in the six- 
Influence of teenth century. But the medium of a poetical 
Foreign Models ,. ^. j r j .. r i i • -rx.- 

^.^. ^ diction and of adequate form was lacking. 1 his 

on Diction and ^ ^ 

Imagery ^^^ *^° t)e obtained only by recourse to foreign influ- 

ence and to foreign models. The movement which 
was going on so rapidly in English poetry during the sixteenth 
century naturally and inevitably spread. It quickly invaded the 
field of dramatic writing. At first the foreign influence seizes 
only upon the learned and cultured classes. The movement is 
experimental and academic. Popular taste is slow to accept it, 
and in fact never does completely accept it. Two important 
things, however, in respect of literary form finally prevail in the 
national drama as in the national poetry, namely, the foreign 
ideals of versification, and the impulse toward imagery and poet- 
ical ornament. In introducing the first of these reforms into the 
drama two men rendered preeminent services : Thomas Sackville, 
who first in Gorboduc introduced blank verse into the English 
drama, and Christopher Marlowe, who first developed the latent 
capacities of this verse, and established it upon the popular stage. 
The gradual introduction into the drama of striking and poetical 
diction is more difficult to trace. There is, however, little signifi- 

are few and rarely sustained." Indeed it is safe to say that, with few exceptions, 
the entire literature of the Middle English period after Chaucer is characterized 
by poverty of imagery and scanty use of metaphor and simile. Allegory how- 
ever abounds. 

'In Hazlitt's Dodsley, II 319-320. 

'See, on the Ubi Sunt Formula, Modern Lang. Notes, vol. VIII 187. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE EIIZABETHAN DRAMA. 5 

cant imagery before the plays of the dramatists included in this 
study. 

Foreign influence as affecting the drama in a marked degree 

first appears in the tragedy of Gorboduc {Ferrex &= Porrex, acted 

1 561, appearing in its final form in 1570). Gorbo- 

uc, 1 s ^^^^ jg ^ highly academic production, written in the 

Imagery , r , . . . , , , 

atmosphere of court and university, with political 

moralization for a motive. It is constructed in the main on the 
Senecan model, and is significant in the history of the dramatic 
diction of the age of Elizabeth as being practically the first con- 
siderable dramatic production to signalize and illustrate the new 
classical and Italian influence which was to inspire and inform 
anew the tardy literature of Modern England. This influence at 
first, and in so far as concerns Gorboduc and plays of its class ' at 
all times, was mainly formal. There is hardly a touch of the unmis- 
takable and mighty poetic diction of the great Elizabethan drama 
to be found in Gorboduc. Occasionally, it is true, we are reminded 
of the famous author of the weighty Induction to the Mirror for 
Magistrates; but the style on the whole is rhetorical and declam- 
atory rather than dramatic. Parallelism and antithesis abound. 
The classical allusions and the poetical formulae and phrases are 
those of the contemporary schools of poets, the school of Tottel's 
Miscellany^ of Gascoigne, and even of Spenser. The mediseval 
tendency to didactic allegory is prominent in the dumb shows 
and in the choruses following each act. Personification, not bold 
and direct, but more or less hidden and conventionalized, is fre- 
quent, — e. g., "When time hath taught them," "climbing pride,"" 
etc. Similar abstractions, in the formal poetic diction of the 
eighteenth century, are written with capital letters and pass as 
undoubted personifications. The effect is the same in both cases, 
— to remove the style from prose and create for the author a new 
and easy pseudo-poetic diction. Formal and direct personification 

'Such as The Misfortunes of Arthur, and the academic drama of Daniel, 
Sir Wm. Alexander, etc. 

*As in this phrase so frequently elsewhere the personification is estab- 
lished by the help of a personifying adjective. Cf. also p. 14 11. 2-4; p. 22 11. 
5-8 ; p. 23 1. IS ; p. 25 11. 7-8 ; p. 41 1. 17. 



6 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

also is used : p. 6 the classical Aurora, for the dawn ; p. 30 1. 12 ; 
of. p. 59 : 

"I think the torment of my mournful case, .... 
Would force even Wrath herself to pity me." 

The imagery of the piece in general however is faint and timid.' 
The immaturity of its diction is revealed in the fact that most of 
the imagery is expressed in adjectives. This is an example of the 
characteristic style of Gorboduc: 

" For cares of kings .... 
Do waste man's life and hasten crooked a.ge, 
With furrowed iace and with en/eed/ed \imhs, 
To draw on creeping death a swifter pace."^ 

"^z///z/«/ remembrance is yet raw in mind."^ 

*' black treason,"* etc. 

The coloring is mostly classical, although the classical allu- 
sions are not numerous: the chief are to Phaeton, pp. 23 and 37 ; 
Aurora, p. 6 ; Tantalus, p. 29 ; Troy and Priam, p. 44; the Furies, 
pp. 53 and 70; etc. There are few striking figures. Three 
formal and expanded similes occur, — the first an example or 
illustration as much as a simile: See p. 37 11. 4-9; p. 59 11. 
22-24; p. 64 11. 11-14. See also p. 75 1. 10. 

It is natural that in an imitative and academic production the 
imagery should be somewhat stiff and conventional. The 
imagery of Gorboduc accordingly is not organic, but is conscious 
and ornamental. The frequency of only slightly metaphorical 
tropes (e. g. "slender quarrels," "to kindle disdain," "heavy 
care," " decaying years," etc.) of itself connotes a designedly 
poetic or rhetorical style, as does the undercurrent of personifi- 

' " Sackville dcrivait bien, avec eloquence et avec nettete, mais sa langue 

^tait plus oratoire que poetique Jamais . . . il ne se permettait aucune 

audace, aucun elan de pure fantaisie ; jamais il ne colorait sa pensee, jamais il 
ne la revetait de ces brillantes images, de ces ornements splendides qui, chez 
les peuples du Nord, constituent I'essence meme de la poesie." (Mezi^res, Pred. 
€t Cont. de Shaks. p. loi). 

'Sackville's Works, p. 14. 

3 Id. p. 21. 

^Id, p. 62. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA. 7 

cation throughout the piece. Otherwise there is little that is 
significant or original in its imagery. In one place there is a 
reminiscence of Chaucer : 

"Then saw I how he smiled with slaying knife 
Wrapped under cloak."' 

The most frequent metaphor, extremely common also in the 
later drama, is that of fire : e. g., p. 48 : 

"The secret grudge and malice will remain, 
The fire not quenched, but kept in close restraint, 
Fed still within, breaks forth with double flame."* 

— an early example also of the "implied simile" common in 
all the later drama. 

On the whole Gorboduc seems to have exercised little influ- 
ence over the diction of the regular Elizabethan drama. It 
belongs rather with the learned and imitative poetry of the last 
half of the sixteenth century. Much of the imagery'of the Eliza- 
bethan drama however is drawn from this poetry and from the 
imitations of the original sources in classical and Italian litera- 
ture, as will appear in the study of Peele, Greene, and Marlowe. 

'Id. p. 63. Cf. Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1. T141. 

^Qi. pp. 22, 39, 45, 47, 49, 62, 84. 



JOHN LYLY 

1554-1606 ? 



Acted 


Published 




Vol. Pages 


1581? 


1584 


Alexander and Campaspe 


- I 89-151 


1582 ? 


1584 


Sapho and Phao 


I 155-214 


1588? 


I59I 


Endimion - - - - 


- I 4-86 


1587? 


1592 


Gallathea 


I 217-276 


1590? 


1592 


My das - - - - - 


- 11 3- 69 




1594 


Mother Botnbie - 


- 11 73-147 


1589? 


160I 


Love's Metamorphosis - 


- II 215-259 



JOHN LYLY. 

The chief importance of Gorboduc in the history of the Eng- 
lish drama is that it first introduced blank verse as a dramatic 
medium. Similarly, according to Professor A. W. 
Lyly's Diction, Ward' and to Ulrici,^ Lyly's chief service was the 
its Chief Char- ,■,,.. . ^ . 

acteristics- and ^'^^^O'^^^tion of an artistic prose as a dramatic 
Influence medium. Earlier instances of the use of prose in 

dramatic writing can doubtless be cited, but Lylv 
was the first to establish the model for such writing in the new 
drama. "When we consider." says Ulrici, "that Lyly to a cer- 
tain extent was the creator of dramatic prose, it must be acknowl- 
edged that he at that early date handled it with an ingenuity 
worthy of all praise." For Lyly's prose in a certain sense is a 
poetical prose. To speak paradoxically his style is not prosaic 
and pedestrian, like that, for example, of Sir Thomas Wilson in 
the same half century. It is lucid, it is ornamented, it is often 
rhythmical,^ abounding in balance, measure, and antithesis. All 
this was not without its influence on the dramatic diction of the 
age. The lightness and the occasional mannerism of Shak- 
spere's prose is suggestive of that of Lyly. Euphuism was symp- 
tomatic of the literary tendencies of the time.'* The Euphuism 
characteristic of Lyly was naturally subdued in his plays because 
of the necessities of dramatic form. For this very reason, perhaps, 
the real characteristics of Lyly's style can better be studied in the 
plays than in the more exaggerated form of his prose romance. 

Most of the characteristics of Euphuism pointed out by 
Euphuism in Landmann^ and other critics* are to be found in the 
the Plays plays, including 

'Hist. Eng. Dram. Lit. (Lond. 1875), p. 159. 

* Shakespeare's Dramatic Art, Vol. I ch. vii. 

3See as examples of stichomythy in Lyly I 21, II 227, 250, etc.; of meas- 
ured prose II 39-40, 225, etc. 

*Cf. Symonds, Shakspere's Predecessors, ch. xiii. 

sLandmann, Euphues (Heilbronn 1887). 

^Minto, Symonds, etc. 



12 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

(i) Parisonic Antithesis : for example, " Seeing we come out 
to be merry, let not your jarring mar our jests ;'" "Bees that die 
with honey, are buried with harmony."^ Usually combined with 
this, as in the two examples just quoted, is 

(2) Transverse and simple alliteration : examples, 
"To attribute such loi\.y ritles to such /^ve /rifles." ^ 
"A dotage no less miserable than monstrous;"'* 

" I go ?rady to return for adv'xct before I am resolved to advtn- 
ture."^ 

(3) Plays on words and paronomasia : examples, 

"Thou to abate the pride of our affections, dost detract from 
Xh^ perfections r ^ "The {&e-sitnple of your daughter's /<7//y/"^ 
"Let me cross myself, for I die if I cross thee."^ 

(4) The heaping up of illustrations, similes, and examples : as 
in Act II, Scene I of Enditnion: 

^^Tellus. Why! is dissembling joined to their sex inseparable ? 
As heat to fire, heaviness to earth, moisture to water, thinness to 
air ? 

Endimion. No, but found in their sex, as common as spots 
upon doves, moles upon faces, caterpillars upon sweet apples, 
cobwebs upon fair windows."' 

(5) The abundant introduction of an unnatural natural his- 
tory.'" This euphuistic natural history can be traced through all 
the succeeding dramatists ; it derives from Eiiphues directly per- 
haps as much as from the plays, though of course the fashion 
was not started by Lyly. 

'Lylyl23. 

'Id. I 179; see also I 18, 20, 112, and passim frequently. 

3Lylyl5. 

^Id. I 6. 

5Id. I 172. 

«Id. I 7. 

7ld. II 78. 

^Id. I 117; See also I 15, 16, 22, 39, 51, 83, 97, loi, iii, 116, 119, 126, 
129, 141, 157, 158, 162, 184, 197, 202, 220, 224, 231, 233, 247, 248, 250-1, 261, 
275; II 7. 10. 12, 13, 14, 15, 21. 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 36, 41, 48, 62, 81, 84, 86, 
96, 99, 102, 117, 121, 126, 134, 142, 147, 185, 217, 218, etc. 

sL^'ly I 20-21 ; see also II 26, 200, and passim. 

'°See infra, p. 17. 



JOHN LYLY. 13 

Figures of speech, in the stricter sense of the ancient rhetori- 
cians, especially anthithesis, balance, alliteration, and parono- 
masia, are thus, we see, among the most striking characteristics 
of Lyly's style. He treats language lightly,' deliberately, and 
with conscious artifice. He is perpetually striving to wrest it 
into conceits and all sorts of witty perversions. This is a fair 
specimen of the customary language of his lovers : 

" My tears, which have made furrows in my cheeks and in 
mine eyes fountains ; my sighs, which have made of my heart a 
furnace,^ and kindled in my head flames ; my body that melteth 
by piecemeal and my mind that pineth at an instant, may witness 
that my love is both unspotted and unspeakable."^ 

Lyly's sprightly dialogue deals largely in quips, such as he 
himself has defined in Alexander and Campaspe: 

'■'■ Psy litis : What's a quip? 

Manes : We great girders call it a short saying of a sharp 
wit, with a bitter sense in a sweet word." 

The manner of Lyly at his best and liveliest is plainly the 
prototype of Shakspere's lighter manner, as it appears, for 
instance, in such plays as Much Ado and As You Like It. 

Probably nine-tenths of Lyly's figures are of the nature of 
conceits.'* They are intellectual and involve a process of reason- 
ing; rarely are they emotional and imaginative. And so with 
his style generally, contrasting with the frequently imaginative 
and "emotional "5 prose of Sidney. Lyly is not altogether 

' " Playing with words and idle similes," was Drayton's exact comment on 
Lyly. ("To Henry Reynolds " — in Chalmer's Poets IV 399). 

= Cf. As You Like It II vii 148: "The lover, Sighing like furnace." 
Elsewhere Lyly carries the same metaphor still further and speaks of a heart 
"j<rtfr<ry^^ with love " (II 170, cf. 251) ; similarly (I 78) : " I /rzVc/ myself ... in 
mine affections." This was a favorite in the time of Cowley and somewhat 
later. A similar conceit however 'occurs in Chapman's (?) Alphonsus (p. 405): 
"My marrow /rzV.r,-" and in Jonson's Poetaster (I 21 1 a): "When earth and 
seas in fire and flame shall /ry." 

3 Lyly II 17. 

*For a particularly bad one see II 18 : — "Thy effeminate mind, Eristus, 
whose eyes are sticht on Coelia's face." See also for further examples of con- 
ceit in Lyly, I 40, 69, 72, 223, 248, 257 ; II 10, 16, 18, 21, 33, 35, 42, 49, 57 f., 
74 f., 113-114, 128, 170, 232, 236, etc. 

5 Cf. Sidney's Defense of Poesy, ed. A. S. Cook, Introd. p. xxvi. 



14 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

unconscious of the quality of his own style, as a sentence from the 
Epilogue to Sapho and Phao reveals : "We fear we have led yoa 
all this while in a labyrinth of conceits." Conceits run well with 
the antithetical and balanced structure. Both are formal and 
intellectual. In Aristotle's phrase' it is "a style which has a 
resemblance to a syllogism." 

If Lyly has little imagination he has much restless fancy. He 
is not abundant in metaphor, and such metaphors as he has are con- 
ventional and clever rather than intensive. His images are not 
suggestive and emotional, but are almost always explicit. By way- 
of compensation for his dearth of metaphor his pages swarm with 
similes. He especially affects the implied simile or imperfect alle- 
gory, where the terms of the comparison are either stated without 
the sign of likeness or one term is omitted entirely. For example : 

"Away, peevish boy, a rod were better under thy girdle, than 
love in thy mouth ; it will be a forward cock that croweth in the 
shell."^ 

This is a favorite form for introducing the illustrations drawn 
from euphuistic natural history.^ 

Beside their indiscriminate Latin quotation Lyly's plays are 
streaked throughout with a sort of pseudo-classicism, the over- 
flow of the runlets of mediaeval anecdotes from classical sources.'* 

Peele and Greene, however, abound more in this sort of thing 
than Lyly, who presumably does not go beyond the limits of 
the court taste. 

To sustain his familiar and sprightly style Lyly draws largely 
for his comparisons upon domestic and colloquial sources.^ 
Formal personifications he uses but rarely.^ 

'See Aristotle's Rhetoric, bk. Ill ch. ix on the Antithetical Style; where- 
under of Parisosis and Paromoiosis — the very traits of Lyly's style. 

»Lyly I 22; see also I 32, 79, 89-91, III, 1 12, 133, 155, 156, 169, 171, 179, 
191, 192, 237, 250, 251, 266; II II, 118, 230, 231, 232, 250, 255, etc. 

3E. g. I 89, 127, 178, 179, 182. 183, 192, 255, etc. 

4E. g. I 89-91, no (Hercules' spindle and Achilles' spear), 150 (Demos- 
thenes), 151 (Diomedes); II 68 (Apollo and Aurora), 157 (a conventional series 
of similes from classical mythology) ; and many others. 

5 See infra, p. 18. 

*E. g. I 68 (Ingratitude, Envy, Treachery), 72, 135, 157 ; II 19, 25 (Ambi- 
tion, cf. 205), 156, 215, 223. 



JOHN LYLY. 15 

Out of this incongruous whole there results a certain effect of 
unity and of charm. It is a Dresden-china world ; it is writing 
of a wholly artificial species ; but it has a grace and beauty of its 
own. Naturally it is not to be subjected to the same analysis 
that we should apply to a more robust and realistic art. It is a 
style that depends largely upon figures of speech and upon con- 
scious and formal tropes. Lyly's imagery is entirely ornamental. 
It matters little where it is introduced. It is adventitious, not a 
part of the thought. It is largely imitative of foreign models.' 
Its influence, however, appears plainly in the contemporary 
drama, and it is therefore important to study the sources and 
range of his imagery somewhat more in detail. 

RANGE OF HIS IMAGERY. 

Similes and illustrations drawn from a fabulous natural his- 
tory, it is well known, are the chief characteristics of Lyly's style." 
Outside of these, however, and within the restrictions of his 
peculiar manner, the range of his nature imagery is not incon- 
siderable. Almost everything, it is true, is conventional and 
courtly, and Lyly doubtless was little observant of nature. But 
it is the fashion of the Euphuistic school to draw upon nature in 
one way or another, and the effect is generally pleasing. 

NATURE : Aspects of the Sky, the Elements, etc. Of these I 
have noted some fifty references in the eight plays studied : II 
232 (the thousand thoughts of a woman's heart are compared to 
the infinite stars and to the sundry colors of the rainbow), II 
160 (" O, eyes, more fair than is the morning star").^ 

II 176. "Neither Daphne in the spring, 

Nor glistering Thetis in her orient robe. 
Nor shame-fast morning girt in silver clouds. 
Are half so lovely as this earthly saint." 

II 189 (the sunshine of her eyes), II 35 (beauty dazzles); II 
158 (to darken); Shadows II 228; Storms II 168, 172, 183; 
Wind I 137, II 182, 159; Stars (cf. I 53 the heavens tiled ■with 

' Cf. Dr. Landmann, Euphues, for a discussion of the sources of Lyly's 
style. 

^Symonds, Shaks. Pred. p. 512. 

3Cf. Greene, 168 b. 



1 6 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

stars) I 79, II 42, 158, 164, 172; Moon I 93, II 157 ; Clouds II 
158, 159, 165, 176 (a common metaphor in Chapman, Ben 
Jonson, etc.) ; Rainbow I 150 ; Fire I 48 (to kindle love), 78, 96, 
112, 116, 133, 137, 146, 158, 204, 213, 232, 256, II 17, 103, 170, 
182, 215, 251 — cf. 105, 118, I 91 (torches) ; Frozen II 131 (frozen 
conscience), 166; The Seasons II 166 (" Sorrow's winter "), 200. 
Aspects of the Water, Seas, etc., appear but little in Lyly : 

I 45 (the ebb and flow of love), 137, 150, II 26, 167, 231, 235; 
e. g. II 225 ("Niobe is tender-hearted, whose thoughts are like 
water, yielding to everything, and nothing to be seen"); Dew I 
148 ; II 201, 231. 

Aspects of the Earth: The Metals : golden is a favorite adjec- 
tive with Lyly, — I 19 ("My golden years"), 28 (cf. II 82), 44, 
256, II 16, 21, 42, 191, 240, 246 ; Leaden I 44 (" leaden sleep "), 

II 82, 240 ; Steel II 27, 250 ; I 143 (the rust of idleness); Iron I 
151 ; Silver II 189, 194, 246 ; Dross II 27 ; Precious stones I 73, 
93, III, 199, 250, II 82, 191 ; Crystal I 129, II 156 ; Flint II 209. 

The Vegetable World : Growth I 8, 10, 75, II 97, 162 ; Trees 
I 22 (cedar), 148, 250, 32 (cf. II 83), I 133, 169, 191 ; Ivy I 22 ; 
Flowers I 29 (Youth the "flowering time"), cf. II 159, 246, I 33, 
171, 199 ; II 20 ("beauty in a minute is both a blossom and a 
blast"), 241, 256, 160, 178 ; Hay and grass I 29, II 241 ; Fruit 
I III, 171. 

The Animal World is for Lyly a frequent source of similes, 
but chiefly in the range of a fabulous natural history. Outside 
of this range the following may be mentioned: Crab I 127, 
Caterpillars I 21; Spiders I 21 (cobweb); Wasp I 82, cf. 192; Bees 

I 151 (wax), II 27, 105, 167, 178, 207, 232 ; Bat I 91 ; Wings II 
197 (" O that thy steeds were winged with my swift thoughts."); 

II 256 ("A mind lighter than feathers"), II 258; Parrot I 82; 
Swan I 91; Larks I 133; Pigeons I 184; Serpent I 82, 192; 
Hare I 90; Lion II 46, 157 ; Deer I 90, 127 ; Dog I 108, II 135 ; 
Horse II 79 (withers wrung'), I 241 (unbridled), 253; Ivory II 
189 ; Wolves I 19 ; Ape II 200, 246 ; Glowworms II 189 : 

"As bright as glow-worms in the night, 
With which the morning decks her lover's hair." 

'Cf. Hamlet III ii, 237. 



JOHN LYLY. 17 

The Fabulous Natural History, as has been noted, is less 
prominent in Lyly's plays than in his romance oi Euphues. The 
chief instances are as follows: Adamant II 23, 170, 192, 219; 
Asbestos I 203 ; Origanum I 155 ; Basel I 89 ; Ebony I 28 ; Beet 
I 144 (of Macedonia); the tree Salurus I 161 ; Syrian Mud I 169 ; 
Various Plants I 170, 171, 190 (Lunary), 192, 240, 244, 250; II 
237 ; Fish I 19, 1 1 1, 190 ; Basilisk II 191 ; Griflfin I 155, 237 ; 
Cameleon I 45 ; Phoenix I 46, 89, cf. 207 ; Cockatrice I 127 ; 
Salamander II 233 ; Insects I 133, 155, 205, 179, 183, 203 (bite 
of Tarantula cured by music), II 26; Worms I 45, II 20, I 150, 
180, II 26, 94 ; Serpent I 90, 172, II 26 ; Birds I 22, 164, 89, 90, 
156, 191, 251, 109 (lapwing), II 109, I 179 (swan's song), II 233, 
I 192 (Halcyon), 251 (Ibis), II 35, 232 ; Ermine I in ; Bear I 
155 (blasts with its breath); Wolf II 230 ; Polypus II 231 ; etc. 

MAN AND HUMAN LIFE: The Fine Arts, Literature, Learning, 
etc., naturally appear but little in Lyly's comparisons. Music is 
mentioned several times: I 40, 108, 125, II 92, 232 (a lady's 
heart like a lute); Painting I 45 (Time a portrait-painter), 141, 
242, II 82, 153, 164 (painted plumes), 200 ; Similes from the 
Stage : I 221, II 99, to6, 108, 182 ; Books I 52, 115, 163, II 25; 
Law I 59, II 78 ; II 125 (the rent-racking of wit), 137 ; Medical : 
Salve I 112, II 166, 170; Various I 45 (" Thy gray hairs are 
ambassadors of experience"), II 27 ("to make inclosure of your 
mind"); I 108 (Money is Diogenes's slave), I 259 (to lackey 
after); I 128 ("life posting to death, a death galloping from 
life"). 

The Practical Arts and Occupations : Agriculture, I 36, 90, 
125, II 86 (sow and reap), 92, 166 (harvest of love); II 17 
(furrows in cheek); Weaving II 3, 228; Lapidaries I gi ; Engrav- 
ing, printing I 66, 78, 141, 270, 273, 11 170; Prentice I 174 
(prentice to Fortune), 251, II 255 ; II 240 (bellows, forge, etc.); 250 
(like melting iron); I 34 (rough-hewn soldiers); II 26 ("Is not the 
country walled with huge waves?");' II 89 (head full of ham- 
mers). 

Amusements and Games: Cards I 123; Hawking II 11, 187, 
190, 218 ; 75 and 91 (mewed up); To angle for I 73. 

'Cf. Greene, 158*. 



1 8 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Colloquial and Familiar Images, together with images taken 
from domestic life, are a specialty in the gentle and courtly style 
of Lyly. " His comedies were . . . new creations. . . . He invented 
a species," says Symonds/ Lyiy's comic power is not great, but 
one of the elements of comic effect here made use of, the appeal 
to colloquial, familiar, and domestic life, was afterwards employed 
by nearly all the writers of comic scenes. Chapman and Ben 
Jonson are particularly profuse in images of this sort. The 
chief examples from Lyly are : I 35 (love milks the thoughts); 38 
("He hath taken his thoughts a hole lower"); 40 (" to untrusse 
the points of his heart"); 59 (commit her tongue prisoner to 
her mouth); 62 (to "step to age by stairs"); 69 (take the 
wall of, etc.);"" 71 (wear the nap of your wit quite off); 70 
(chin unfledged); 135 (Truth's face scratched); 141, 178, (to 
wrastle with love); 249 (thoughts made hailfellows with the gods); 
n 21 ("gold is but the earth's garbage, a weed"); 86 (" truanted 
from honesty ");3 89 (coistrels); 97 (" an idiot of the newest cut "); 
219 ("thy words as unkembd as thy locks"); cf. H 107, no, 91- 
92 ("this metaphor from ale"); Breeds I 276, H 3, 7, 243. 

Domestic Life: I 5 ("my thoughts ... are stitched to the 
stars"), cf. 249, n 18, 218; 1 156 (a needle's point); Sewing H 82, 
85, I II ; Dress I 1 9 (" as a cloak for mine affections "), 185 (fine 
ladies — like fine wool which wears quickly); cf. H 44 (to shroud), 
n 97, 113, 114, 201 ; Affections H 182 ("the western wind. That 
kisses flowers, and wantons with their leaves"); Divorcing I 19; 
I 14 (war "rocks asleep my thoughts"), 158 ("She hath her 
thoughts in a string"); I 126 (reason must wean what appetite 
nursed); so I 184, 223 ; 36 (" that bauble called love "); I 49 (" I 
have no playfellow but fancy, . . . and make my thoughts my 
friends"); H 176 ("levity is beauty's waiting maid"). 

The Body and Its Parts : I 6 (" My thoughts have no veins, 
and yet unless they be let blood, I shall perish "); I 20 (every vein 
and sinew of my love), cf. H 228 ; I 58 (prefers the body of truth 
to the tomb); I 77 (the wounds of love); cf. 270, 112 ; I 54 (the 

' Shakspere's Predecessors, pp. 516, 532. 
'Cf. Ben Jonson, II 408^. 
3Cf. Chapman, 304*. 



JOHN LYLY. 19 

rheum of love); II 12 (lips are the door of the mouth); II 107 (a 
body like a cask); II 7 (love is the marrow of the mind); II 19 (the 
grave's mouth); II 8 ("gold is but the guts of the earth"), cf. II 
19, 25, 247, I 267 ; II 195 (the thunder's teeth); I 19 ("my 
mangled mind"), cf. I 11 1 (a crooked mind), cf. I 112 (sighs 
cleave the heart) ; Z^ (pinched my heart) ; 1 1 2 (wounded thoughts) ; 
128 (the canker of care), cf. II 223 ; II 6, 245 (to tickle the mind); 
Touch I 64, II 26; To creep I 132 ; To pant II 112. 

The Senses and Appetites: I 26 ("to glut their eyes"); 
Surfeit I 27, 44, 68, 112, 156, 181, 183, 192, II 95, 83 ; Food, 
Eating, etc., I 69 (love's feast), 108, 252, II 19 (eating cares),' 215, 
35, 81, 86 ; Drinking I 162, 205, 229 (Ship in a storm drinks salt 
healths) ; I 1 84 (" Silence shall disgest what folly hath swallowed ") ; 
II 25 (pampered with slaughter); II 47 (to taste war and relish 
taxes) ; To relish II 83 ; II 167 (honey words, sauced with gall) ; 
Sugared II 38 ; Spice II 90 ; Sour II 159. 

Death and its Surroundings : I 72 (a mouthful of bones [teeth] 
like a charnel-house) ; I 72 ("go to the sexton and tell him desire 
is dead, and will him to dig his grave") ; I in (woman is like a 
whited sepulchre). 

A few commonplace Images of War occur in Lylv's plays : 
I 48 (a war of love in the mind, " instead of sweet parleys ") ; 
Armory I 52 ; I 55 (their wits as rusty as their bills) ; I 60 (the com- 
bat of love) cf. I 149, 250; 1 81 ("more strength in a true heart 
than in a walled city") ; I 83 (" let my tongue ransom hers ") ; II 
96 (the face a scabbard of the mind), cf. II 135, 18; II 78 (to 
overshoot oneself). 

Subjective Life, Religion, etc.: I 82 (" tell who Eumenides 
shrineth for his saint"), cf. II 16, 176; Paradise II 174, cf. II 
185 ; Hell II 179 ; Magic I 91 ; Influence of Stars I 221. 

A number of Miscellaneous Metaphors and Similes, most of which 
frequently reappear in later writers, remain to be mentioned. Most 
of these are of the nature of conventional poetical tags and for- 
mulae, although not sufificiently common to fall under the class of 
faded, or to adopt Max Muller's expression, incarnate metaphors. 
The more frequently recurring ones are characteristic marks of 

'Cf. Horace "edaces curae " {Carm. 2, 11, 18, etc.). 



20 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

the poetic diction of the Elizabethan drama: Unspotted I i8 
(unspotted love), so I 82, 273, II 17, 258: cf. I 45, 50, 62, 80 
(unspotted thoughts; cf II 234, 254), I 213, 245, 251, II 220; 
Melt I 28, 37, 40 (*' your sad music . . . hath so /«(?//<?^my mind") 
141, 207, II 17, 27, 250, — cf II 131 (thaw); Quench I 48, 79 
("affection's unquenchable"), II 215, 223 ; Poison I 49, 77, 112 
(the poison of love), II 190; Climbing I 157, 178 (mounting), II 
7, 19 (to climb the steps of ambition), 25; Mirror, Glass, etc. I 
181, II 155, 160 ("Thou mirror of dame Nature's cunning 
work"), 218 (a flatterer is a glass); Mould II 37, 77. cf I 45 
(image); Pierce I 58, II 241 ("whose heart no tears could 
pierce"); Labyrinth I 168, 214; II 24 (" Coelia hath sealed her 
face in my heart"); Balances, to weigh, etc. I 81, II 7, 9 ; To 
Avhet I 117 (to whet one's wits), II 88; II 18 ("thoughts gyved 
to her beauty"); II 35 (thoughts entangled by beauty) ; II 27, 
108 (wit of proof); I 182 (filed tongue, — cf II 219); I 241 
(thoughts unknit); Counterfeit, coin, etc. I 151, II 76, 89, 164, 
169; Colors II II (black). 



GEORGE PEELE 

1552 ■''-1598? 



Acted Published Vol. Pages J 

1581? 1584 The Arraignment of Paris - - I 5- 72 1 

1590? 1593 Edward the First - - - I 85-217 J 

1590? 1594 The Battle of Alcazar - - - I 227-296 \ 

1595 The Old Wives' Tale- - - I 303-347 j 

1588? 1599 David and Bethsabe - - - II 5- 86 ! 



GEORGE PEELE. 

Peele's imagery has received some praise. Hawkins ' with 
curiously bad taste called one of his worst metaphors ^schylean. 

"There is no such sweetness of versification and 

Opinions of imagery to be found in our blank verse anterior to 

. , Shakespeare," writes Campbell." Ulrici finds that 

Imagery David and Bethsabe recalls Romeo and Juliet. "It 

is more especially the love scenes and the images 
and similes describing the charms of the beauty of nature, that 
remind one of those incomparable pictures xn Romeo and Juliet. ''^ 
Hallam, who is hostile to Peele, says : " Peele has some command 
of imagery, but in every other quality it seems to me that he 
has scarce any claim to honor."" Peele was in fact a poet 
rather than a dramatist, and it is by his poetical gifts alone that 
he attains his slender measure of success. His imagery is seldom 
condensed and emphatic, and is seen at its best in his two most 

poetical pieces, the Arraignment of Paris and 

, . ^ David and Bethsabe. When he attempts to be 

his Imagery ^ 

dramatic, as in the Battle of Alcazar and Edward 

the First, he becomes strained and turgid. He is fond of simile, 
and his imagery runs to extended passages rather than to short 
and burning figures. In his five plays occur over one hundred 
formal similes, including some seven of the prolonged or so- 
called Homeric type.^ This tendency is especially characteristic 

'As quoted in Collier's Hist, of Eng. Dram. Poetry, III 27. The metaphor 
is contained in the following lines : 

"At him the thunder shall discharge his bolt ; 
And his fair spouse [i. e. the lightning], with bright and fiery wings, 
Sit ever burning on his hateful bones." 
For somewhat similar metaphors in Peele see II 65, 66, 79, etc. 
'Specimens of British Poets, page Iviii. 
3Shakspere's Dramatic Art, Vol. I, p. 137. 

♦Lit. of Eur. Pt. II. ch. VI, § 31 ; see also Ward, Hist. Eng. Dr. Lit. I. 213. 
5 Examples of prolonged metaphorical passages; I lo-ii, 205, II 15, 60, 
and the parables pp. 33 and 45. Prolonged similes: I 10, 96, 203-4, II 12, 29, 
42, 80. 

23 



24 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

ol David and Bethsabe,wh.Qrt,re?,\x\img from the attempt to embody 
in Elizabethan dramatic form the spirit of the biblical imagery,' 
his language becomes almost a continued series of figures, among 
which hyperbole^ and personification 3 especially abound. His 
imagery is generally extrinsic and ornamental. Where he attempts 
force and emphasis his language degenerates into rant and extrav- 
agance in the vein of Tamburlaine ; e. g. I 112 (Lluellen's speech 
on hearing of Elinor's capture), 237, 238, 250, 253, 262 ("a lake 
of blood and gore " ), 280, 288, II 2 1 (the metaphor which Hawkins 
so much admired), 40, 60, 63, 66, 82, 83 ; see especially II 49 : 

Ahimaas. " O would our eyes were conduits to our hearts, 
And that our hearts were seas of liquid blood, 
To pour in streams upon this holy mount. 
For witness we would die for David's woes. 

Jonathan. Then should this Mount of Olives seem a plain, 

Drowned with a sea, that with our sighs should roar " . . 

On the other hand, where he writes in his own poetical vein, 
he is often highly successful. See for example the famous flower 
passage in the Arraignment of Paris,'' or Edward I, sc. V, 11. 
109-1 14 : 

"What Nell, sweet Nell, do I behold thy face? 
Fall heaven, fleet stars, shine Phoebus' lamps no more ! 
This is the planet lends this world her light ; 
Star of my fortune this, loadstar of my delight. 
Fair mould of beauty, miracle of fame." 

and David and Bethsabe passim, e. g. sc. xv, 11. 89-90 : 

"But things to come exceed our human reach. 
And are not painted yet in angels' eyes,'' — 

and the speech following. 

While not strikingly original, Peele's imagery is not, on the 
other hand, wooden and artificial. His range is not great. Stars, 
sky, sun, and flowers play the largest part, but are generally used 
effectively and gracefully. "Painted," "mirror," "mounting,'' 

' Most of his borrowings from biblical sources are noticed in Bullen's notes. 
='E. g. II 19, 21, 49, 54, 60, 63, 65, 66, 76, etc. 

3E. g. II 7, 8, II, 13, 17 ("To suffer pale and grisly abstinence, To sit 
and feed upon his fainting cheeks " ) 19, 20, 21, 23, 31, 48, 62, 76, 82, 85. 
■♦Peele, Works, I pp. 10- 11. 



GEORGE PEELE. 25 

and similar poetical catchwords of the day occur frequently. 
There are a few touches of Euphuistic natural history. And in 
general Peele does not go far out of the conventional range for his 
images ; there are very few domestic images and few drawn from 
the arts, from religion, and the like. Two imitations of Spenser' 
and one of Du Bartas'' occur, while his allusions point to Homer 
and the classical tradition. His comic and familiar passages 
Peele usually casts into prose, and in them uses little figure and 
that almost entirely colloquial and proverbial in nature.^ The 
general impression from the Arraignment of Paris, The Old 
Wife's Tale, and David and Bethsabc is that of sweetness and 
grace. The Arraignment of Paris is practically bare of metaphor 
and simile save in two or three passages. In Flora's speeches in 
Act I, scene i, the imagery (referring mostly to flowers) rises and 
throngs to the expression of lyrical beauty. It is elaborate and 
conscious poetry but not dramatic. All the strong images in this 
piece appeal to the sense of sight. The Old Wife's Tale contains 
almost no striking imagery. What there is is colloquial and in 
keeping. David and Bethsabe is Peele's masterpiece. As else- 
where, his genius here is chiefly lyrical : the speeches roll out the 
beauty of their poetry deliberately, not dramatically, and the 
imagery is graceful, but not compact with dramatic import. His 
versification is accordingly fluent and smooth. " Exasperatingly 
insipid," Mr. Bullen calls the piece, and it is certainly figurative 
or rather tropical beyond measure. Metaphors, similes, and per- 
sonification especially abound. 

Edward I diXid The Battle of Alcazar are generally strained and 
stilted. Peele was trying his hand at the extravagant and blood- 
thirsty rant of the school of Greene, Marlowe and Kyd. There 
is the usual amount of misplaced classical ornament."* These 
two plays are not important or highly significant. 

' Cf. II 42, 244 ; note in I 34-36 the parody of the Shepherd's Calendar. 

''Cf. II 29. 

3 See infra, p. 29. 

^ Classical allusion is frequent in Peele — naturally so in the Arraignment 
of Paris. The Fates (I 6, 71 etc.), the Furies (I 229, 234, 242, 280, 284, 321, 
342) and Nemesis (I 229, 241, 242, 280) are particularly prominent, especially 
in the midst of the hyperbolical rant of the Battle of Alcazar. In David and 



2 6 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

RANGE AND SOURCES OF HIS IMAGERY. 

Nature, and especially inanimate nature, affords by far the 
larger proportion of Peele's metaphors and similes. This fact 
alone is proof of the non-dramatic character of his mind. The 
dramatist, alive to all aspects of human life, naturally draws most 
of his comparisons from human life. Flowers and stars, sun and 
sunshine, appear more than any other images in Peele, and his 
touch is often that of a poet. 

NATURE Aspects of the Sky, The Elements, etc.: I 128 
(the crystal gates of heaven); cf. I 188, II 9 ("comelier than the 
silver clouds that dance On Zephyr's wings"). 

Sun and Clouds: I 87, 162, 291, 293 (sunshine), 112 (cf. II 

41): 

"Sun, could'st thou shine, and see my love beset, 
And didst not clothe thy clouds in fiery coats. 
O'er all the heavens, with winged sulphur flames ?" 

Peele is fond of the pathetic fallacy (e. g. I 124, II 19, 50, 54, 
76, etc.); II 12 (metaphor of the sun : "heaven's bright eye") ;' 
II 42 (like the sun dancing forth from the East — after Spenser), 
43 (like the sunset), 67, 79. 

Stars: I 96, cf. 117 ("The welkin, spangled through with 
golden spots, Reflects no finer in a frosty night" . . .). 121, 
125 ("Edward, star of England's globe"), 127, 166, 143: 

"Why should so fair a star [Elinor] stand in a vale. 
And not be seen to sparkle in the sky ?" 

II 22 ("Making thy forehead, like a comet, shine") 

42 ("Shining in riches like the firmament. 

The starry vault that overhangs the earth.") 

50 ("That piteous stars may see our miseries. 

And drop their golden tears upon the ground.") 

Bethsabe there are (properly) very few. The chief elsewhere in Peele are ; 
Various Gods: I 87, 97, loi, 112, 260, 270, 291, 305, 314, 334; 96 Ops, Ixion, 
etc. Ill ^^geus, 116 Paris, 117 Narcissus, 123 Perseus and the Gorgon; Phleg- 
ethon, Avernus, etc., I 140, 209, 235, 230 the Myrmidons, 246 Pompey, 162 
the Graces ; etc. Cf. I 252 Occasion and her foretop. 
' Cf. Comedy of Errors, II i 16. 



GEORGE PEELE. 27 

Cf. 54, 67 (hyperbole), 86; Comets I 10: 

"Nor doth the milk-white way, in frosty night. 
Appear so fair and beautiful in sight, 
As doen these fields, and groves, and sweetest bowers." 

Fire : I 44 ("Round drops of fiery Phlegethon to scorch false 
hearts"), 61 ("in his bosom carries fire"; cf. 151); 227 (Honor 
inflames the Portingal ; cf. 272) ; II 22 ("let hate's fire be kindled 
in thy heart"), 49 ("the wrath of heaven inflames Thy scorched 
bosom with ambition's heat"), 67 ("all breasts that burn with any 
griefs"). 

Light, Shining, etc.: I 86, 91, 117, II 26 ("his fame may 
shine in Israel"), II 38, 75, 84. 

Storms : II 41 ("wrathful stortns of war Have thundered''). 

Dew : II 58 ("So shall we come upon him in our strength, 
Like to the dew that falls in showers from heaven"). 

Seasons : I 336 ("Die in the spring, the April of thy age!")' 

Aspects of the Sea: I in ("the wallowing main"); cf. 259, 
203-4 11. 20-30 (simile of the shepherd who blames the ship- 
wrecked seaman for inaction). Coral I 117 ("coral lips"); so 
335; Springs I 210, 2X2, II 49. 

Aspects of the Earth: II 58 ("in number like sea-sands. That 
nestle close in one another's neck") ; Glass I 97 ; Golden I 290. 

Flowers: I lo-ii (Flora's speech), 21 ("as fresh as bin the flow- 
ers in May"), 31 ("The fairest face, the flower of gallant Greece")* 
131, 132, 155, 163 ("And yet is earthly honor but a flower"), 145 : 

" As when of Leicester's hall and bower, 
Thou wert the rose and sweetest flower." 

203 ("pale, like mallow flowers"); cf. 204 lines 32-33; 344, II 9 
(cf. 10 11. 67-70), 23 ("Gladsome summer in her shady robes, 
Crowned with roses and with painted flowers"); 47, 84; I 253 
(thorny teeth). 

Weed: I 189 ("To spoil the weed [i. e. Lluellen] that chokes 
fair Cambria"); cf. 198; 

Fruit : I 252, II 19, 68, 77 ; 

Trees: I 90 ("how, like sturdy oaks. Do these thy soldiers 
circle thee about, To shield and shelter thee from winter's 

'Cf. II47. 



2 8 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Storms!"), II 9 ("Brighter than inside bark of new-hewn cedar"), 
II rg (cedars). 

The Animal World enters rather conventionally into Peele's 
imagery. The traditional "lion-like" is common; I 181 ("to 
rouse him lion-like"), so 188, 287, 239 : 

"O fly the sword and fury of the foe, 
That rageth as the ramping lioness 
In rescue of her younglings from the bear!" 

II 32, 57 ("David . . . whose angry heart, Is as a lion's letted of 
his walk"); Bear II 57 ("Chafing as she- bears robbed of their 
whelps"). 

Among Domestic Animals appear Dogs, I 125, 126, 139, 251 : 

"Make the sword and target here my hound 
To pull down lions and untamed beasts." 

290, II 15 ; Cattle I 183 : 

"Princes of Scotland and my loving friends, 
Whose necks are over wearied with \.\\t yoke 
And servile bondage of these Englishmen, 
Lift up your horns, and with your brazen hoofs, 
Spurn at the honor of your enemies." 

194: "And heifer-like, sith thou hast past thy bounds, 
Thy sturdy neck must stoop to bear this yoke." 

Sheep I 89 (fled "like sheep before the wolves"), 228, II 33. 

Horses II 29 ("Laying his bridle in the neck of sin. Ready 
to bear him past his grave to hell !"), 30 ("giving lust her rein") 
65 (bridle), 78, I 227 (Spur). 

Birds: I 149, 152, 154; II 29-30 11. 4-14 (simile from Du 
Bartas ; man flies to sin as the raven to its carrion).' The image 
of wings is a favorite with Peele also : I 195 ("If his wings grow 
flig, they may be dipt"), 205 : 

" My soul . . . 
Faint [fain?] for to mount the heavens with wings of grace, 
Is hindered by flocking troops of sin." 

II 5, 6, 20, 21 (the winged lightning), 66 ("Then set thy angry 
soul upon her wings"). 
'Cf. Chapman, 537a, 



GEORGE PEELE. 29 

Serpents II 11 : "a hundred streams . . . 
Shall, as the serpents fold into their nests, 
In oblique turnings, wind their nimble waves, 
About the circles of her curious walks." 

Fabulous Natural History appears in four or five places : 

I 35-6 : ("like to the stricken deer, Seeks he dictamnum for his 
wound within our forest here"); 253-4 : 

" I will provide thee of a princely osprey, 
That as she flieth over fish in pools. 
The fish shall turn their glistering bellies up, 
And thou shalt take thy liberal choice of all." 

177 ("His sight to me is like the sight of a cockatrice"), cf. II 48 
("Piercing with venom of thy poisoned eyes^^), II 80 11. 1 19-130 
(as the eagle mounts and stares at the sun). 

MAN AND HUMAN LIFE. The Arts: I 194 ("Your goodly 
glosses"); II 61 ("The sins of DdiVxd, printed m his brows"); II 
23 (painted flowers); Music II 44; Building II 78 ("for what 
time shall this round building [the earth] stand"); Prison I 
202 ("in this painful prison of my soul"), 290 ("my soul. That 
breaks from out the prison of my breast"). Medicine I 186 
(to purge), II 12; Agriculture I 182 : 

"Why now is England's harvest ripe : 
Barons, now may you reap the rich renown 
That . . . grows where ensigns wave upon the plains." 

II 14 (reaping reward), 86; Wire II 38 ("Thou fair young man, 
whose hairs shine in mine eye. Like golden wires of David's ivory 
lute"). So 46, cf. 363 ("The Praise of Chastity" 1. 73);' Hooks 
and Bait I 273, II 23. 

Colloquial, Coarse, and Familiar Images occur in Peele 
mostly in relief scenes or scenes from low life: I 107 (drawing a 
pot), 109 ("as plainly seen as a three half-pence through a dish of 
butter in a sunny day"), 140 (outlawed men like discarded cards), 

' See the same simile in Spenser, Epithalamion 1. 154 (cf. Todd's note), F. Q. 

III viii 7, IV vi 20, II iv 15, Ruins of Time 1. 10, Hymn in Honor of Beauty 1. 
97 ; in Gascoigne " Dan Bartholemew of Bath " stanza 9 (Chalmers Poets, II 501), 
and in many others. It appears frequently in M. E. poetry; see Shakspere's 
.Sonnet CXXX satirizing the comparison. 



30 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

i68 ("cutting off" the law, as a hangman cuts down his victim), 
173 ("the dice, not being bound prentice to him"), 191 ("it shall 
cost me hot water"), 307 (a proverb), 312 ("my first wife, whose 
tongue . . . sounded in my ears like the clapper of a great bell"), 
313 (a series of homely similes), 325, 332, 334 ("He . . . speaks 
like a drum perished at the west end"), I 125 ("Take that earnest 
penny of thy death" \stabs hint]), 129, 134, II 30 ("If holy David 
so s/iook hands with sin").^ 

The Body and its Parts. Entrails and bowels I 57, 250 
("Earthquakes in the entrails of the earth "), II 9, 53, 66, 73 ; cf. 
82 ; Veins II 50, 55, 66 ; God's finger I 293, II 24, 55 ; I 125 
(paws); I 124 (the thirsty sword). 

Of DOMESTIC IMAGES there are practically none in Peele. 

Subjective Life, Religion, etc. Hell and heaven I 131 ("Let 
me saint or divel be. In that sweet heaven or hell that is in 
thee"); 262 ("And now doth Spain promise 2i>ith ho/y face") ; cf. 
prologue to David and Bethsabe passim; II 61 ("Even as thy 
sin hath still importuned heaven ") ; 86 : 

"Thy soul shall joy the sacred cabinet 
Of those divine ideas that present 
Thy changed spirit with a heaven of bliss;" 
II 46 (angel). 

"War. I 182 ("thy treason's fear shall niahe the breach"), 332 
("a woman without a tongue is as a soldier without his weapon"), 
II 51 ("armed with a humble heart"), I 11 1 (to dart), II 54 {dart 
plagues at), cf. 8^- 

A Few Miscellaneous Metaphors are frequent and characteristic 
tags of Peele's style, especially the image of piercing: I 5 ("smoke 
piercing the skies?"), 42, 234 ("These rites . . . Have pierced by 
this to Pluto's cave"), 279, 342, II 7 ("Let not my beauty's fire 
. . . pierce any bright eye"). So 8, 9, 12 (2x), 17, 48, 64, 83 (2x); 
Climbing, Mounting, etc. I 93 ("thy mounting mind"), 114, 153, 
cf. 205, 227, 290, II 80 ; Mirror I 19 (" Mirror of virginity"), 344 : 

"Whose beauty so refliecteth in my sight 
As doth a crystal mirror in the sun." 
' See — with the contrary application of the idea — Webster 77a : " You have 
shook hands with Reputation"; cf. Ford I 315). 



GEORGE PEELE. 3 1 

11 63; Mould, Pattern I 127 ("Fair mould of beauty"), 177 
(Pattern); Tangle I 282 ("tied and tangled in a dangerous war"), 
II II : 

"Now comes my lover, tripping like the roe. 
And brings my longings tangled in her hair." 

Cf. 56, 362 (Praise of Chastity 1. 51); I 17 (painted paths), 
II 23 (painted flowers), 8 ("plain enamelled with discolored 
flowers"); Rip I 24 (unrip not so your shames"), II 73; I 46 
(" Hard heart, fair face, fraught with disdain ") ; Poison II 60, 83. 



CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE 

1 564-1 593 



Vol. Pages 

Tafubiirlaine the Great. Part I - I 7-^05 

Tambitrlaine the Great. Part II - I 109-206 
The Tragical History of Doctor Fail stits I 211-283 
The Jew of Malta - - - - II 5-113 

Eihvard the Second - - - II119-234 

The Massacre at Taris - - - II 239-298 



Acted 


Published 


1587 


1590 




1590 


1588? 


1604 


1589? 


1594 


1590 


1594 


1593? 


c- 1595 



33 



CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 

In the history of English dramatic poetry Marlowe is the first 

figure of supreme importance. He first established blank verse 

on the public stage as the principal medium of 

^ ,„ , , dramatic expression, and it was he who "first 
and Value of ^ 

his Imagery inspired with true poetic passion the form of litera- 
ture to which his chief efforts were consecrated.'" 
The "mighty line" of Marlowe has been felt and applauded by 
all critics from Ben Jonson down. Connected with his innova- 
tion in style, as evidenced by the new music of his verse and the 
new passion of his thought, the range and character of Marlowe's 
imagery is also highly significant and worthy of study. The 
inspiration and Titanic energy of an emancipated genius, quali- 
ties so apparent in all his work that they have led most modern 
critics to rank Marlowe as a dramatic poet next after Shakspere 
in the Elizabethan circle, are apparent also in the pictures which 
his imagination bodies forth, in the various forms of figurative 
language which are woven into the texture of his style. The 
chief faults as well as the chief merits of this style are displayed 
in his use of figures. "His poetry [is] strong and weak alike 
with passionate feeling, and expressed with a turbulent magnifi- 
cence of words and images."' Violence, hyperbole, bombast, 
the "display of overloaded splendors and colors,"^ these are the 
characteristic marks of the two parts of Tambiirlaine. In his 
later work the bombast and hyperbole are less apparent, and the 
color and splendor of the poet's diction are kept more nearly 
within the bounds of poetic and dramatic decorum. 

The condensed metaphor, the brief and pregnant expression 
of a striking and oftentimes complex metaphorical idea in one 

"Ward, Engl. Dram. Lit., I 203. 
'Brooke, Primer of Eng. Lit., § 80. 
3Taine, Eng. Lit., Bk. II, ch. ii. 

35 



36 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

short word or phrase, first' prominently appears in Marlowe. It 
accords well at times with his passionate utterance, although it is 
a form characteristic of the highly elliptical and 
purely dramatic diction of a poet like Shakspere 
in Marlowe rather than of the more swelling and lyrical utter- 
ance of Marlowe. Examples of this figure in Mar- 
lowe are as follows: I 50 "Cannons fnouthed Yikt Orcus' gulf." 
156 "Death, why com'st thou not? 

Well, this must be the messenger for thee." 

[Drawing a dagger.) 
II 15 "Thus trawls'^ our fortune in by land and sea." 
272 "Her eyes and looks sow' d seeds of perjury." 
314 "Our unweapon'd thoughts.'''' 

While his use of metaphor and simile is not highly literary 

and conventional like much of the work of Peele and Greene, 

still Marlowe writes rather as a poet than as a 

His Imagery dramatist.^ In Tamburlaine, at least, the imagery 

°xV^*x,. is abundant and does not seem to be very much 

rather than •' 

Dramatic discriminated among the various characters, except 

that most of the glorious hyperbole is put into the 
mouth of Tamburlaine himself. It is poetical imagery, seldom 
existing merely to make clearer or to strengthen the thought, but 
rather for the sake of hyperbolical magnificence, or to convey 
and enforce the passion or the pomp of an idea. Thus in the 
famous description of Tamburlaine,'* 

"Of stature tall and straightly fashioned. 
Like his desire lift upward and divine," etc., 

all is barbaric hyperbole and ornament. Occasionally the 

metaphor in its excess of turbulent daring becomes mixed, or as 

Hazlitt phrased it,^ "There is a little fustian and 

. ^ , incongruity of metaphor now and then, which is 

Metaphors & / f , . „ ^ 

not very injurious to the subject. l"or example: 

' Kyd, writing contemporaneously, has some striking examples of the same 
sort. 

= A metaphor from drinking. Cf. Nares. 

3 On the lyrical element in Marlowe's drama see J. A. Symonds, In the Key 
of Blue and Other Prose Essays, pp. 244-246. 

4 Part I, Act II sc. i (I 28). 

5 Age of Eliz., Lecture II. 



CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 37 

I II (Theridamas is "the very legs Whereon our State doth lean 
as on a staff").' 

I 132 : "And jealous anger of His fearful arm 

Be poured with rigor on our sinful heads." 
II 244 ("My quenchless thirst, whereon I build''), 

280 ("Navarre, that cloaks them underneath his wings'"). 
Cf. II 353 ("Yet Dido casts her eyes, like anchors out"), 

368 ("When Dido's beauty chained thine eyes to her"). 
But these last may be Nash's conceits. 

Tambiirlaine of course is the locus classicus for magnificent 
Hyperbole hyperbole and glorious extravagance.* A charac- 

teristic passage may be quoted : 

"I will, with engines never exercised, 
Conquer, sack, and utterly consume 
Your cities and your golden palaces ; 
And, with the flames that beat against the clouds 
Incense the heavens, and make the stars to melt. . . . 
.... And, till by vision or by speech I hear 
Immortal Jove say ' Cease, my Tamburlaine,' 
I will persist, a terror to the world, 
Making the meteors, that, like armed men, 
Are seen to march upon the towers of heaven, 
Run tilting round about the firmament. 
And break their burning lances in the air, 
For honor of my wondrous victories."^ 

Marlowe like Greene is fond of costly passages and gorgeous 

_ ,, _, description: I 14: 

Costly Phrases ^ ^ 

"march in coats of gold, 
W^ith costly jewels hanging at their ears. 
And shining stones upon their lofty crests." 

So 20, 119, 219, II 12, 334, 361, 363, etc. Marlowe has also, 
like Spenser and Milton, many passages of ethnic pomp and geo- 
graphic romance. He loves to feed the hunger of 

_. his imagination with whole continents. The sound- 

Romance ^ 

ing reports of great conquests are a large part of 

' Cf. II 292 "Sweet Duke of Guise, our prop to lean upon." 

'The most striking examples are I 18, 23, 35, 36, 50,60, 7of, 102, 121, 123, 

124, 137, 140-141, 147, 173-4, 179. 189. 198. Elsewhere in Marlowe see II 

273. 291, 325-6, 348, 351, 353. 357, 358, 369, 373- 
31 173. 



38 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

the poetical motive of Tamburlaine. " Give me a map," cries 
Tamburlaine,' " then let me see how much 

Is left for me to conquer all the world." 
{One brings a map) — And then follows one of those enumer- 
ations of mighty empires and far-off regions so dear to the 
adventurous imagination of the Elizabethan Englishman, — Persia, 
Armenia, Bithynia, Egypt, Arabia, the Suez Canal by anticipa- 
tion, Nubia, "the Tropic line of Capricorn," Zanzibar, Graecia, 
and much else ! Note also Faustus' hungry heart for roaming, 
and the satisfaction with which he recounts his travels.'' 

Marlowe in spite of his strenuous seriousness is not above 
an occasional play on words, e. g. I 51 ("Which dyes my locks 

« .,.,.,. %o lifeless.'"), 114 

Quibbling ■' n "t 

" India, where raging Lantchidol 

Beats on the regions with his boisterous blows'' 

I 196 (" pitch their pitchy tents"), 203 (" Must part, imparting 
his impressions"), II 43 (foiled), 175 ("The barons overbear 
me "), 294 (arms). 

In the later plays the proportion of tropes is much smaller 

than in the two parts of Tamburlaine.^ At the same time, while 

much less profuse, the metaphors and similes of the 

The earlier and j^^gj. pj^ys are usually more restrained and effective. 

the later work Considerable bold personification, of which there is 
distinguisnea ' 

little in the other plays, is furthermore a charac- 
teristic of Tamburlaine: e. g. I 29 (Honor, Nature, etc.), 46 
(Death), cf. 156, 199, 61 (Victory), 95 (Fame, Hunger), 96 (Dark- 
ness), 98 (Earth), 137 (The Sun), 144 (Fortune), 170 (a city); cf. 
the Seven Deadly Sins in Faustus; cf. 264 (Time), II 36 (Sleep), 
206 (Sorrow). Simile also is frequent in Tamburlaine; there 
are some 75 short similes of one line or less in its two parts,"* and 
nearly the same number of similes two lines or more in length, 

'II Tamburlaine Y iii (Vol. I pp. 201-202; cf. 113-114, 128, 188). 

^Faustus sc. vii (Vol. I, p. 250). 

3 I note some 400 metaphors and similes in Tamburlaine, io some 250 in 
the other four plays taken together. 

•* He is fond of short alternative or cumulative similes: e. g. I 20, 52-3, 60, 
IIS, 119, 183, 218-219, 238, 276 ; II 41. 



CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 39 

including eight prolonged or quasi-Homeric similes, viz.: I 54 
(Terror inspired by Tamburlaine's look like that felt by the sea- 
man in the tempest), 89-90 (Zenocrate like Flora, etc.), 151 (a 
wound like a jewel or ornament), 161 (Tamburlaine like Hector 
— "I do you honor in the simile"), 173 (torments will make his 
enemies roar like a herd of bulls) ;' 174 (meteors like armed men), 
179 (like "the horse that guide the golden eye of Heaven"), 183 
(his plume like an almond tree) ' Historical example is another 
form of comparison characteristic of Tamburlaine: e.g. I 114; 
"As the Romans used, 
I here present thee with a naked sword." 

34 (Xerxes' host), 42, 61 (Caesar's host), cf. H 126, 198, 245, 
287, etc. Finally, classical allusion] is very frequent in Tambur- 
laine. I note more than 90 instances. There are some 20 
instances in Edward II; very little in the other plays. ^ The 
literary and quasi-epical cast of Tamburlaine is revealed in its 
use of trope, — the abundant hyperbole, personification, and 
simile (all figures of a highly conscious sort), the numerous and 
forcible metaphors, the borrowings from Spenser and others,^ and 
the classical embroidery. But the profusion of Tamburlaine in 
these figures is no more noticeable than is the comparative 
restraint of the later plays, where significant metaphor is chiefly 
used in crises and situations of emotional excitement. ^ 

' Imitated from Spenser, F. Q. I viii 11. 

'After Spenser F. Q. I vii 32. 

3 References to the classical Inferno, Hades, Avernus, Styx, etc., are com- 
mon : I 23, 78, 93, 103, 126, 147 ,172, 178, 180, 252, II 68, 203, 207 ; Homer 
and the Trojan war are frequently mentioned : I 140, 24I ; Helen II, 140, 27of, 
275,11 169; Achilles I 29, 161, II 148; ^neas I 99, 100; Penelope I 238; 
Ginone I 241 ; Jove's Adventures and Amours often appear : I 20, 24, 113, 119, 
175, 276, II 140, 155, 186; Various Gods I 25, 45, 46, 47, 53, 102, 104, 115, 167, 
I75i 183, II 34, 122 ; Phoebus and Cynthia, see infra under " Sun " and " Moon ;" 
Aurora I 31 ; Hercules I 59, 179, II 125, 148; Atlas I 28, 171, II 178, 307; 
Phaeton I 72, 205, II 133 ; The Furies I 78, 126, 147, 178, II 207, 291 ; Nemesis 
I 35 ; The Fates I 157 ; Fortune and her Wheel I 23, 99, II 214, 232, (cf. I 
144, 157); Occasion I 206, II 102 ; Leander II 119 ; and many others. 

^ E. g. Ariosto, 177; see elsewhere various quotations or references in Mar- 
lowe's text to classical authors, e. g. II 18 (Terence), 154 (Pliny), 201 (Seneca), 
to Virgil in Dido passim, etc. 

5 See examples cited below, p. 174. 



40 , METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Marlowe's epithets and metaphors are often hyperbolical and 
violent, but seldom conventional or faded, barring the classical 
allusions, and even these are oftentimes so phrased as to gain a 
new freshness and beauty, e. g. I 89-90 : 

"like to Flora in her morning pride, 
Shaking her silver tresses in the air, 
Rain'st on the earth resolved pearl in showers. 
And sprinklest sapphires on thy shining face." 
Or 179 : 

"The horse that guide the golden eye of heaven. 
And blow the morning from their nosterils. 
Making their fiery gait above the clouds." 

RANGE AND SOURCES OF IMAGERY. 

NATURE. Aspects of the Sky, The Elements, etc.: Sun I 35 

("Sun-bright armor"), so 97, cf. 137 (the Sun personified), 171, 
183 ("In golden armor like the sun "), II 64, 177 : cf. Phosbus 

I 18, 119, 137, 179, 183, 195, 205, 206, II 38, 193. Shadows I 
104, 219, II 206 : 

"But what are kings, when regiment is gone. 
But perfect shadows in a sunshine day ?" 

Cf. 246; Sunrise I 179, II 38 (cf. 307); Moon and Stars: I 46 
("always moving as the restless spheres"), 92 ("the fiery-span- 
gled veil of Heaven"), 157, 54 ("the furies of his heart That 
shine as comets "), cf. 71, 146, 174, 189; 276: 

"Oh, thou art fairer than the evening air. 
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars." 

II 37 (Abigail like a star); cf. Cynthia I 71, 134, 136, 137, 157, 
175, 196, II 43. Clouds I 145 : 

"Their ensigns spread 
Look like the parti-colored clouds of heaven." 

179 ("My chariot, swifter than the racking clouds"), 195, 201: 

"Thus are the villain cowards fled for fear 
Like summer vapors vanished by the sun." 

(cf. II 146), 281, cf. II 54, 271 ("Is Guise's glory but a cloudy 
mist?"); Fire I 44 (the flame of ambition; cf. II 243), 68, 130, 
137, 145, 166 ("Wrath, kindled in the furnace of his breast"). 



CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 41 

169, II 120, 239; Lamps (of heaven ; — for stars) I 60, 70, 71, 121, 
137, 158, 177, 196, 202. Storms, Rain, etc., I 24 (to rain gold), 
63, 115 (shower of darts), 127, 133, 144, II 196 (Rain showers of 
vengeance), 240 (" Guise may storm "), 241, 263, 268 ; cf. Boreas I 
25, 37, 127 ; Thunder I 9 (thundering speech), 35 ("bullets like 
Jove's .... thunderbolts"), 67, 71, 98, 132, 135 ("God hath thun- 
dered vengeance"), 166 (cannons thunder), II 158 ("I'll thun- 
der such a peal into his ears"); Snow I 20 ("Fairer than whitest 
snow on Scythian hills"); Seasons I 45 ("the morning of my 
happy state"); Night (personified) I 96, II 194. 
Aspects of Sea and Water: Tide I 175 : 

"With thy view my joys are at the full. 
And ebb again as thou departest from me." 

I 48 (in number as the drops of the sea), 127, 54 (simile of seaman 

in storm), 76 (simile of pilot in the haven who views the storm). 

Aspects of Earth, Minerals, etc.: Adamant II 173; Coal-black 

I 49, 126 ; II 227 (a heart "hewn from the Caucasus"), II 273 ("the 
haughty mountains of my breast"); Golden I 137 (of the sun), 

II 122 ("hair that gilds the water as it glides"); Silver I 137 
("silver waves"); Leaden II 156 ("Base, leaden earls"); Crystal 
I 121 (cf. II 363) 157 (a crystal robe), 182 (crystal waves); Dia- 
mond II 42-43 (Abigail like a diamond); II 287 (pale as ashes). 

The Vegetable "World: Trees I 68 (Spearmen "As bristle- 
pointed as a thorny wood"), 71 (like cedars struck by thunder- 
bolts), 183 (plumes like an almond tree — Spenser's simile), II 
154 (emblematic allegory of the cedar-tree and the canker-worm); 
Branch I 282 ("Cut is the branch," etc), II 181 ("This Spencer, 
as a putrefying branch. That deads the royal vine"); Leaf I 37 
(quivering like an aspen-leaf), 159 (in number like leaves), II 273 ; 
Mushroom II 144; Flower II 34 ("A fair young maid .... The 
sweetest flower in Cytherea's field"); Fruit I 30 ("fall like mel- 
lowed fruit with shakes of death"); Seeds II 272 ("Her eyes and 
looks sow'd seeds of perjury"); I 180 (hedges). 

The Animal World: Lion I 18 : 

"As princely lions, when they rouse themselves, 
Stretching their paws, and threatening herds of beasts. 
So in his armor looketh Tamburlaine." 



42 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

i8i (lionJike), II 133, 162, 206, 218; Tiger II 210; Wolf II 207, 
212 ; Fox I 10: 

"Tamburlaine .... like a fox in midst of harvest time, 
Doth prey upon my flocks of passengers, 
And, as I hear, doth mean to pull my plumes." 

Deer I 63 : 

"Let his foes, like flocks of fearful roes. 
Pursued by hunters, fly his angry looks." 

II 248; Porcupine I 121, II 121. 

Domestic Animals: Sheep I 169 ("And leads your bodies 
sheep-like to the sword"), II 41, 207; Bulls I 173 (Spenser's 
simile); Horses I 180: 

"To bridle their contemptuous, cursing tongues. 
That, like unruly, never-broken jades. 
Break through the hedges of their hateful mouths." 

II 66 (ambles); Dogs I 173 ("bark, ye dogs"), II 41 ("We Jews 
can fawn like spaniels when we please," etc.), 192 (bark). 

Birds: Wings I 36 (winged sword, etc.), 115 (feathered 
steel), 166 (cf. II 35), II 206, 243, 280, 289 ("I'll clip his wings"); 
Doves I 86 ("What, are the turtles frayed out of their nests?"); 
Cockerel II 162 ("Shall the crowing of these cockrels affright a 
lion?"); Lark II 38 (Barabas sings over his gold as the lark over 
her young); Goose II 121 : 

"These words of his move me as much 
As if a goose would play the porcupine. 
And dart her plumes, thinking to pierce my breast." 

Wren II 218; Raven II 35 (That "tolls The sick man's passport 
in her hollow beak"); Partridge II 85 (Barabas hides his gold, 
"as partridges do their eggs, under the earth "). 

Fabulous Natural History: Torpedo-fish II 141 : 

" Fair queen, forbear to angle for the fish. 
Which being caught, strikes him that takes it dead ; 
I mean that vile torpedo, Gaveston." 

Allegory of the flying-fish pursued by its enemies II 154 ; Croco- 
dile I 67 (to lie in sloth. 



CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 43 

"As crocodiles that unaffrighted rest, 
While thundering cannons rattle on their skins"). 

Deer ii 205-6 (wounded, seeks a herb for cure).' 

MAN AND HUMAN LIFE: Arts, Literature, etc.: I 81 (the 
sword — Tamburlaine's pen with which he draws his map), 90: 
.... "thy shining face. 
Where beauty, mother to the Muses, sits. 
And comments volumes with her ivory pen." 

Cf. II 271 : "Hath my love been so obscured in thee, 

That others need to comment on my text?" 

I 23 ("characters graven in thy brows"), cf. 28, 29, 53; II 228; 

I 144: 

"As all the world should blot his dignities 
Out of the book of base-born infamies." 

Cf. II 333 ("His looks shall be my only library "). 

Medical : II 143 ("purging of the realm of such a plague" 

— i. e. Gaveston), 288 ("This sweet sight is physic to my soul"). 

Music : II 188 "To think that we can yet be tuned together; 

No, no, we jar too far." 
Paint: I 118 ("to paint in words"), II 87 ("painted car- 
pets," i. e. flowery fields), 156 ("the painted spring"). 

Building : I 30 (life a palace), 45 ("The wondrous architec- 
ture of the world"), 64 (pillars), II 218 ("the closet of my heart"). 
Prison (of the body) I 175 : 

"Making a passage for my troubled soul, 
Which beats against this prison to get out." 
Metal-Work (I 21): 151 (enamelled), 70, 183 (enchased). 

II 145: 

" My heart is as an anvil unto sorrow, 
Wliich beats upon it like the Cyclops' hammers." 
Dyeing : I 51 ("Which dyes my locks so lifeless"), 97 (walls 
dyed with blood), 150. 

Dress, etc.: Cloak or Mantle I 50 ("The ground is mantled 

with such multitudes"), 90 ("in the mantle of the richest night"), 

196 ("Mufifle your beauties with eternal clouds"), II 280 

(cloak); Veil I 92 ("the fiery-spangled veil of Heaven"), 124, 

' Cf. Peek, I 356. 



44 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

134 ("thou shining veil of Cynthia"); Clothe I 121 ("clear 
the cloudy air, And clothe it in a crystal livery"), cf. Shroud I 170, 
(II 311. Cf. II 363). 

Various: Divorced II 169 (Gaveston "divorced from King 
Edward's eyes," cf. II 340). 

Agriculture: II 156 (like the shepherd); Yokel 85,95, H 
2S9 ; Furrow I 86 ("the folded furrows of his brows"), cf. I 23, 
II 123, 245 (324, 352). 

Amusements and Hunting: I 63, 75, 77 : 

"As frolic as the hunters in the chase 
Of savage beasts amid the desert woods." 

II 162 ("baited by these peers"), 198 (to start the game), 248 
(the deer in the toils). 

Dancing I 29 (wind making hair dance), 115 ("the cannon 
shook Vienna wall, And made it dance'''), cf. 148 ("to undermine 
a town And make whole cities caper in the air"), 137 (Sun dances 
on the waves), 183 (plume dancing in the air); Games II 191 
(prisoner's base); Cards II 245. 

Of Colloquial, Coarse and Familiar Images there are very few 
in Marlowe: I 57 ("That damned train, \h& scum oi Africa"), 
so 75 ; I 95 {'■'■Smeared with blots of basest drudgery"), II 42 
("The slave looks Like a hog's cheek new singed"), 74 (bells 
that sound like tinkers' pans), 84 (the hangman's hempen 
tippet), 84 (mustaches like a raven's wing), 87 (give money as 
cow gives down milk). 

The Body and its Parts: Temples I 137 (of the sun); Eye^ 

I 177: 

. . . "that bright eye of heaven 
From whence the stars do borrow all their light." 

So 179 ("The horse that guide the golden eye of Heaven"), 279; 

II 38 ("Now Phoebus ope the eyelids of the day")," Brows, etc. I 
28 ("in the forehead of his fortune Bears figures of renown"); 
Stomach II 129 ("All stomach [dislike] him"), so 164; Bowels, 
Entrails, etc., I 72 (bowels of a cloud), so 133 and 281, 98 

'Metaphors for eyes, see I 28, 95, 140, II 209. 

*Cf. Lycidas 1. 26 "Under the opening eyelids of the morn." 



CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 45 

(entrails of the earth), so 236, 11 15, II 217 (" unbowel straight 
this breast"), 245 ("the bowels of her treasur)'"), 280 ("To rip 
the golden bowels of America"); II 252 ("The head [Coligny] 
being off, the members [the Huguenots] cannot stand"); Sinews 

I i33> 143- 

Various Human Attributes: Kiss II 136 ("enforce The 
papal towers to kiss the lowly ground"), so 296; I 114 (to swal- 
low, cf. II 318); Sleep II 123 (sword sleeps in scabbard). 

The Senses and Appetites: Thirst I 29 (thirsting for sover- 
eignty), so 35, 44, II 244; Taste II 248; Surfeit I 127 (to sur- 
feit in joy), 212 ("He surfeits upon cursed necromancy"), 216 
("glutted with conceit"), 277 ("A surfeit of deadly sin"), II 285. 
294; Feed (II 337, 340). 

Subjective Life, Religion, etc.: Death I 45 (personified), 
so 46, 53, 88, 102, 140, 156, 157, 196, 199, II 245 ; Sepulchre II 
59 : "These arms of mine shall be thy sepulchre."' 

Hell I 55 (cf. 135-6), 186 (" More strong than are the gates 
of death or hell"), II 137 ("this hell of grief"); cf. numerous 
references to classical Hades, Avernus, Styx, etc.; Spirits I 61, 
197 (devils and angels), cf. Faustus passim, II 260 (" That bell, 
that to the devil's matins rings"); Heaven I 87, 127, 174 ("the 
towers of heaven"), II 119: 

"The sight of London to my exiled eyes 
Is as Elysium to a new-come soul."° 

II 233 (the undiscovered country). Soul I 276 ("Her lips 
sucks forth my soul ; see where it flies!"); Preach II 23 ("Preach 
me not out of my possessions"), 124 ("their heads preach upon 
poles "), so 176 ; Altar and Sacrifice II 60 : 

' Dyce compares III Henry VI, II v : 

"These arms of mine shall be thy winding sheet ; 
My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre." 

See further, infra, references on this head under Webster, Chapman and Ford. 
Cf. in Marlowe II 128, 245 ("in my love entombs the hope of France"). 

^Cf. Mrs. Browning, Aurora Leigh, Book II : 

" I go hence 
To London, to the gathering -place of souls." 

Cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona, II vii 38. 



46 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

"Upon which altar I will otfer up 
My daily sacrifice of sighs and tears."' 

Influence of the Stars I 29, 44, 57, 71, 86, 94, II 202, 284. 

Images of War, etc.: II 273 (Vengeance encamped, shows 
her gory colors), I 45 (" the breach thy sword hath made"), 90 
(Sorrows lay siege to the soul); 174 (meteors tilting like armed 
men),' cf. I 18 ("windy exhalations. Fighting for passage, tilt 
within the earth"), 54 (Auster and Aquilon //// about the heavens), 
cf. II 312 (waves //// twixt the oaken sides of wrecked vessels); 
Massacre, kill, etc. I 94 ("That lingering pains may massacre his 
heart"), 141 ("our murdered hearts") 170, 202 ("bleeding hearts, 
Wounded and broken"), II 201 (wounds), 247 ("my soul is 
massacred"), 264 (" thou kill'st thy mother's heart"); Arms II 
144 ("'Tis not the king can buckler Gaveston "), so 169, cf. II 
314 (" unweaponed thoughts"); Archery I 37 : 

"Kings are clouts that every man shoots at, 
Our crown the pin that thousands seek to cleave." 

And see Tamburlaine's discourse (I 148-9) on the art of war — 
from the sixteenth century standpoint. 

The Stage and the Drama: Play a part I 22 ("Our swords 
shall play the orator for us "), 155 (" Soldiers, play the men "), 
so 159; I 182 ("make us jesting pageants for their trulls"),. 
II 161 ("thy soldiers marched like players. With garish robes, 
not armour"); Tragedy II 228 ("I see my tragedy written in 
thy brows "), so 231, 242, 282, 297. 

Miscellaneous: Unspotted I 85 (Unspotted prayers); Melt 
I 85, II 227 (thy heart will melt); Poison^ II 129 (" Swoln 
with venom of pride," cf. II 367); Climbing, Mounting, etc., I 46 
("climbing after knowledge infinite"), II 9 ("My climbing 
followers"), 156 ("Mounting thoughts"), 243, cf. 283, cf. I 19 

' Two Gentlemen of Verona, III ii 73 : 

" Say that upon the altar of her beauty 
You sacrifice your tears." 
» Cf. The Comedy of Errors IV ii 6 : " his heart's meteors tilting in his 
face." 

3 Poison of a literal sort also appears frequently in Marlowe, e. g. II 49, 55, 
67, 163, 221, 242. 



CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 47 

("Affecting thoughts coequal with the clouds"), and 28 ("Like 
his desire lift upward"); Pierce I 27 ("my heart to be with 
gladness pierced"), 28, 30, 119, 203, II 60, 137 ; Labyrinth II 64 
("The fatal labyrinth of misbelief"); Balance, weigh, etc. I 19 
(weigh = esteem), 85 : 

"Your honors, liberties, and lives are weighed 
In equal care and balance with our own." 

II 9; Fold, Wrap, etc. I 29 ("hair Wrapped in curls"), 35 
(bullets enrolled in flame), 53 (" his choler . . . wrapt in silence 
of his . . . soul"), 72, 86 ("folded furrows of his brows"), 241, 
II 40 ("bullets wrapt in smoke"); II 1 24 (" henceforth parley 
with our naked swords"), 143 (to greet with a poniard); 
Scourge, Whip I 57 (" I that am termed the scourge and wrath of 
God"), 75, 123, 144, t6o, 182, II 248, 260 (" I'll whip you to 
death with my poniard's point"), 265 ; Pour I 95, 132, 171, II 
177, 182 ("This day I shall pour vengeance with my sword On 
those proud rebels"); Melt, dissolve I 95, 96 ; Smother I 96, II 

54- 

When we review these schedules it appears that Marlowe's 
imagination draws upon no very wide range of sources for its 

effects. The largest part and the most striking 
Recapitulation part of the above lists is derived from Tamburlaine. 

But the mature Marlowe is not represented by 
Tamburlaine, and the most remarkable feature of the later plays 
is the surprisingly small amount of figure employed. Nor can it 
fairly be said that the range and character of such imagery as 
therein appears are very great or striking. The effect of Faustus 
and of j5'^/k77;7/ // depends for the greater part on other things. 
When we consider his imagery as a whole it is noticeable 
that nature, especially the aspects of the heavens, fire,' storms, 
etc., supply a considerable part. Not only has Marlowe's genius 
apparently a natural affinity for these images,- but they lend 
themselves more readily to grandiose and hyperbolical effects. 
Death, hell, and heaven are similarly laid under contribution. 
Classical allusion, especially in connection with these images 

"'.... his raptures were 

All ayre and fire." (Drayton, Battle of Agincourt.) 



4o METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

(Phcebus, Cynthia, Avernus, Styx, etc.), is interwoven at all 
points. Noticeable is the small proportion of comparisons drawn 
from colloquial and familiar sources, from domestic life, and 
from the various occupations of men, although the tragic poet 
and idealist of course has less occasion to draw upon such sources 
than the realist and the writer of comedy. 



THOMAS KYD 



>557?-i595? 



THOMAS KYD. 

In view of the doubt that involves the authorship of the vari- 
ous plays ascribed to Kyd, it would not here be profitable to 
attempt an analysis of the range and sources of his imagery. 
The First Part of Jeronimo and The Spanish Tragedy,^ however, 
seem to have been so important and "epoch making"^ that it 
will be well to record here some of the more striking metaphors 
and similes found in these plays. 

Jeronimo, with all its general formlessness and extravagance, 
has a number of metaphors, including a few striking and effective 
ones, as will be seen below. The author is fond of 
Striking strange compound epithets: e. g. 352 zucll-strun^ 

Metaphors , zv z/ 7 ■ 1 • 1 ^ ■ 

and Similes speech, 355 hp-blushing kiss, 357 honey-damnation, 

in Jeronimo 35^ ink-soul, 360 true-breasted. ^ Other noteworthy 
tropes are: 353: "A melancholy, discontented 
courtier. Whose famished jaws look like the chap of death.'' 
Almost everything \n Jeronimo, of course, is violent and extrava- 
gant. 365 : 

" Then I unclasp ■* the purple leaves of war ; 
Many a new wound must gasp through an old scar." 

384: "O, in thy heart. 

Weigh the dear drops of many a purple part 
That must be acted on the field's green stage. "^ 

Every subsequent dramatic author will be found drawing 
metaphors in this way from the stage. 

391 "My blood's A-tiptoe;" 351 "■ rough- hewn tyrants;" 
Melt 354, 359, 375, 383 ("thy court melt m luxuriousness"), 

'Both produced between 15S4-1589. 
^Symonds, Shaks. Pred., 487. 
3Cf. V 352 marrow-burning love. 
*Cf. Ford, II 47 "unclasp The book of lust." 
sCf. also pp. 374, 376, 390 (to pla_y a part). 
51 



52 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

391, 394; Stamp 353 ("a lad . . . of this stamp''), 355, 357; 
Bowels 363 ("in the battle's bowels"), 380; 

371 : " The badger feeds not, till the lion's served ; 

Nor fits it news so soon kiss subjects' ears, 

As the fair cheek of high authority." 

386 : " I long to hear the music of clashed swords." 

387 : " Now death doth heap his goods up all at once, 

And crams his storehouse to the top with blood ; 
Might I now and Andrea in one fight 
Make up thy wardrobe richer by a knight !" 

The Spanish Tragedy is even more extravagant, but it has a few 
fine passages of hyperbolical passion. It is marred by a super- 
fluity of cheap classical mythology, especially in 
^^ ^^^ the way of allusions to Acheron, the Styx, Pluto, 

panis Elysium, etc. It has very little striking metaphor, 

and it is remarkable with how little help of figure 
are written the one or two stronger passages of the play supposed 
to be additions by Ben Jonson. 

Vol. V. 68 : " The night, sad secretary to my moans " 

loi : " Of that thine ivory front, my sorrow's map'' ^ 
" Wherein I see no haven to rest my hope." 

105 : "He had not seen the back of nineteen years." 
Ill ; "Thou hast made me bankrupt of my bliss." 
115 : ''YondQv pale-faced Hecate there, the moon." 
168 : "Methinks since I greto inward vi'xth. revenge, 
I cannot look with scorn enough on death. "^ 

Tropes common to two or more of the following plays attri- 
buted to Kyd:^ Je?-onimo, The Spanish Tragedy, Cornelia (trans- 
lation), Soliman and Perseda : 
Tropes Melt IV (as above), V 127, 246; Print, charac- 

Commonto ^^^ jy g g y ^^ Showers IV 358, 

Various Plavs jd ' o j> i ' jj ' 

Ascribed V 296 ; Choke IV 361, 382, V 90 ; Scabbard, Sheathe 

toKyd IV 361, V 222, 321; Pawn IV 363, 387, V 30; 

Infect IV 379, V 90, 203; Toad IV 379, V 325; 

' A frequent metaphor in others, e. g. Chapman, 79b, 406b, etc. 
= Cf. Hazlitt's note, referring to parallels in Marston and Tourneur. 
3 The references are to Hazlitt's Dodsley, — Vol. IV to /eronimo; Vol. V 
I-173 to Sp. Trag. ; 183-252 to Cornelia ; 257-374 to Sol. and Per s. 



THOMAS KYD. 53 

Adamant IV 372, V 159, 300; Stoop IV 391, V 47, 195, 230; 
the Stage IV 374, 376, 384, 390, V 41, 305, 358, 364, 373 ; Pierce 

IV 387, V 29s; Honey IV 351, V 8, 46, 334; Bowels IV 352, 
363, V III, 321, cf. Entrails V 189, 199; Bait IV 353, V 185; 
Thunder IV 352, 355, 373, V 193; Salve, Balm V 88, 97, 307; 
Sickle and Harvest V 61, 340 ; Cloak V 124, 214, 325 ; Simile of 
Ship in a Stormy Sea V 43, 185, 259, 349 ; "translucent breast" 

V 31, the same 295 ; Ransom V 67, 288 ; Lamp V 159, 300, 334. 

Little of this can really be called evidence of common author- 
ship in these plays, since almost every one of these metaphors 
occurs so often throughout the period. Still it may be taken for 
what it is worth. The resemblances among the last three plays 
are more noticeable than any xSxdX Jeroninio bears to the others. 



ROBERT GREENE 

? 1 560-1 592 



Acted Published Pages 

1591? 1594 Orlando Furioso - - - 89-1 11 

1589 ?(Fleay) 1594 Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay - 1 53-1 81 

1592? 159S James the Fourth - - - 187-220 

1592? 1599 Alphonsus, King of Arragon - 225-248 



55 



ROBERT GREENE. 

Greene, like Peele, is of little account as a dramatist. His 

faults, — the fustian, the monotonous blank verse, the misplaced 

and excessive classical allusion' — are those of his 

y. ^ school.' But he has no very striking merits of his 

his Imagery -^ ° 

own to counterbalance these faults. "Writing in 

direct competition with Marlowe," says Mr. J. A. Symonds,' 

"and striving to produce 'strong lines,' Greene indulged in 

extravagant imagery, which, because it lacks the animating fire of 

Marlowe's rapture, degenerates into mere bombast." Mr. Minto* 

thinks he traces the influence of Greene on Shakspere's diction. 

The evidence, however, is not very striking. The inferiority of 

Greene as a dramatic poet appears in the general poverty and 

commonplaceness of his imagery. Hallam^ thinks that he is "a 

little redundant in images," but this criticism can apply only to 

the Orlando Furioso, where Greene's peculiar pseudo-classical 

imagery is heaped up in superabundant measure.'^ Otherwise his 

imagery is somewhat scanty. He uses few striking and original 

metaphors. He is, however, fond of accumulating "gorgeous 

particulars" and costly descriptions, as has been noted.^ When 

he feels prompted to be poetical, as in Orlando 
His Favorite „. ,, r-. . c c 

_, Fiirwso, he becomes profuse in two sorts of figures : 

(i) Sententious tropes, proverb, parable, fable 

' " His main stylistic defect is the employment of cheap Latin mythology 
in and out of season" (Symonds, Shaks. Pred., 558). 

^"En somme, le talent de Greene n'est qu'un pale reflet de celui de Lyly 
et de Marlowe" (Mezieres Pred. et Cont. de Shaks. 147). 

3 Shaks. Pred., 562. 

■•Char, of Eng. Poets, 242. 

5 Lit. of Eur., Pt. II, ch. vi, § 32. 

* There are over 100 classical allusions in Orlando Furioso ; less than 100 
in the other three plays taken together. 

7Minto I.e. 243; Collier II 532. The most striking of these are: 89b, 
III, 165, 169-170. 

57 



58 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

and short allegory, (2) short similes, especially those of classi- 
cal material (e. g. "richer than the plot Hesperides "). There 
are over one hundred formal similes, including seven prolonged 
similes, in the four plays, the greater number in Orlando Furioso. 
His metaphors and similes do not reveal any great degree of 
imagination. It is true, as Mr. Minto observes,' that his classical 
comparisons are not as generally wooden and perfunctory as 
those of some of his contemporaries. " He had the notion of 
giving life to. dead names;" e.g. 236: 

" See now he stands as one that lately saw 
Medusa's head or Gorgon's hoary hue;"^ 

89 : " Topt high with plumes, like Mars his burgonet," 

90 : " The sands of Tagus all of burnished gold 

Made Thetis never prouder on the clifts 
That overpeer the bright and golden shore. 
Than do the rubbish of my country seas." 

But his manner on the whole is rhetorical and literate.^ He 
has his share of bombast and fustian, especially in Alphonsus, 
which was written "in direct rivalry to Tamburlainey "^ See 
e. g. 98-106 passim (Orlando's madness) 99, 230, 231, 234. His 
imagery is literary ; ^ it is less original than Peele's even. 
Greene's nature images are few and are not vividly rendered. 
There is the usual amount of Euphuistic natural history. He is 
fond of proverb and sententious comparison.* Greene as a 
dramatic writer as much as Peele fails to leave any very definite 

'Char, of Eng. Poets, 243. 

^Cf. Chapman, 170 b. 

3 Greene is very profuse in Classical Allusion. A few of the more striking 
examples are : 89a Venus' doves; 89-91 Jason, Ulysses, Jupiter and Danae, 
Hercules and lole, Thetis, Andromache, Hector and Achilles, etc. ; Siege of 
Troy 92a, io6a; Paris 96a, 158a; io6b, 99a ("like mad Orestes"); Cupid 
190b; Nestor 199b; 234b (Midas and Bacchus, Jupiter and Alcmena, Saturn 
and Tros) ; of a historical nature : 90 (Caesar in England) ; Cassius 94b, 164b ; 
Nero's mother io8b ; Lucrece 154a; Cleopatra 170a; etc. 

^Fleay, Chron. Eng. Dr., I 257. 

5 Examples of prolonged similes in Greene are pp. 93b, 95a, 196b, I99b^ 
228b, 230a. 

*E. g. 154b, i6ib, 173b, 191b, 192a, 193a, 196b, 200, 20ib, 204a, 206b, 
208a, 213b, 214b, 2i6a, 226, 228b, 236b, 238a, 246b, etc. Fable 219a. 



ROBERT GREENE. 59 

impression. In James IV \\^ has glimpses of character. Doro- 
thea is finely conceived. His plots in two or three instances 
contain the germ of good dramatic situations ; but his execution 
is always inferior. Strangely enough, in view of his life and 
habits, Greene's plavs contain little that is coarse or indelicate. 
He has very few coarse or disgusting images. 

RANGE AND SOURCES OF HIS IMAGERY. 
Greene's range is narrow and is emphasized in no particular 
direction. NATURE is only slightly represented in his plays. 

Aspects of the Sky : The sun shines here and there in Greene, 
but usually disguised as Phoebus : e. g. 93b. : 

" the sparkling light of fame, 
Whose glory's brighter than the burnished gates 
From whence Latona's lordly son doth march. 
When, mounted on his coach tinsell'd with flames, 
He triumphs in the beauty of the heavens." 

These lines have a certain rhythmic swing and naive splendor 
of imagery! Cf. 89a, 90b; 190a ("beauty shines"); Fire: 97a 
(jealousy like the flames of /Etna), so 107b; 98a, 153b, 191a 
(the fire of love); the Moon and Stars 93b : 

"... seest thou not Lycaon's son. 
The hardy plough-swain unto mighty Jove, 
Hath traced his silver furrows in the heavens, 
And turning home his over-watched team. 
Gives leave unto Apollo's chariot?" 
1 68b (" Gracious as the morning star of heaven.")' 
170a : "Margaret, That overshines our damsels as the moon 

Darkeneth the brightest sparkles of the night." 
Cf. 1 78b, 194a, 231a (" As clear as Luna in a winter's night"). 
233a " Ere Cynthia, the shining lamp of night, 

Doth scale the heavens with her horned head." 
Clouds: 94a ("The misty veil strained over Cynthia.") 
The Vegetable World : Flowers 90b : 

" Fairer than was the nymph of Mercury, 
Who, when bright Phoebus mounteth up his coach, 
And tracts Aurora in her silver steps 
[Doth sprinkle] from the folding of her lap 
White lilies, roses, and sweet violets." 

'Cf. Lyly, II 160. 



6o METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

96a : " Sweet crystal springs, 

Wash ye with roses when she longs to drink." 

176a : " Thy father's hair, like to the silver blooms, 
That beautify the shrubs of Africa." 

179a (Friar Bacon's prophecy of the coming flower of Eng- 
land — Queen Elizabeth), 196b : 
"Some men like to the rose 
Are fashioned fresh ; some in their stalks do close, 
And, born, do sudden die ; some are but weeds. 
And yet from them a secret good proceeds." 

The Animal World, outside of the Euphuistic natural history, 
is represented by some dozen references in Greene : 

Serpents : 220a (bad counsellors are vipers). Birds, Wings 

177b : "To scud and overscour the earth in post 

Upon the speedy wings of swiftest winds ! " 

Eagle 20 1 a, " What, like the eagle then, 

With often flight wilt thou thy feathers loose? 

Cf 215a. Peacock 244b (emblem of pride) ; Sheep and wolves 
230a (the stock simile of sheep scattering before the wolves : cf 
236a) ; Horses 242a (" horses that be free Do need no spurs") ; 
Dogs 243a; Grasshoppers 91b : 

" Such a crew of men 
As shall so fill the downs of Africa 
Like to the plains of watery Thessaly, 
Whenas an eastern gale, whistling aloft. 
Hath overspread the ground with grasshoppers." ' 

Bees 190b (Love, like a bee, hath a sting). See the fable of 
the Hind and the Lion's Whelp 219a. 

Under Fabulous Natural History come : 

Adamant 201b ("The adamant will not be fil'd But by itself"). 
Asbestos 232a : " My mind is like to the asbeston-stone. 
Which if it once be heat in flames of fire, 
Denieth to becomen cold again." 

Dictamnum= 208a (a cure for the wounds of beasts: see 
Dyce's note p. 208); 171b (evanescent as the bloom of the 
almond-tree, or "the flies haemerae ") ; 189b (eagles and their 

'Cf. Iliad, XXI 12. 

= Cf. Peek, I 35-6. 



ROBERT GREENE. 6i 

young) ; 2 2Sb (long simile of the serpent which, cut in pieces, 
is revived if its head finds a certain herb); 236b (simile of the 
echinus, or hedgehog, which keeps her young in her paunch till 
" their pricks be waxen long and sharp "). 

MAN AND HUMAN LIFE. Arts and Learning : 
i68a : " Lordly thou look'st, as if that thou wert learn'd ; 
Thy countenance as if science held her seat 
Between the circled arches of thy brows." 

Painting : 94b ("paint my grief"), 98a, 154a, 195b, 225a. 
Print : 94b (" So firmly is Orlando printed in my thoughts"). 

Law: 91a: "Venus . . . 

Hath sent proud love to enter such a plea 
As nonsuits all your princely evidence." 
91b : 
"[Her presence] Prevails with me, as Venus' smiles with Mars, 

To set a supersedeas of my wrath." 
i6ob (Bacon's consistory-court wherein the devils plead); 235a 
("Naught else but death from prison shall him bail"). 

Agriculture: 200a (The husbandman does not forsake his field 
when his crop fails). 

Building : 1 73a : " Bacon, 

The turrets of thy hope are ruin'd down. 
Thy seven years study lieth in the dust." 

Wall 158a: ... "the West 

Ringed with the walls of old Oceanus, 
Whose lofty surge is like the battlements 
That compass'd high-built Babel in with towers." 

Weaving: nib (Silk "from the native looms of laboring 
worms "); 

Hunting: 94a ("To play him hunt's-up with a point of 
war"), 190b (stales or decoys). 

Greene is reported to have studied "physic," and yet I note 
no tropes drawn from medicine in his plays. 

Colloquial and Familiar Images occur mostly in the form of 
proverbial expressions appearing in the comic scenes : 93a 
(" to hold the candle before the devil," i. e., to propitiate evil 
and powerful opponents), 169a (" as serviceable at a table as a 



62 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

SOW is under an apple-tree");' 173b ("the more the fox is 
cursed, the better he fares ");=' 193a (quoted — "No fishing to 
[= equal tol the sea, nor service to a king"), 200a : 

"Men seek not moss upon a rolling stone. 
Or water from the sieve, or fire from ice. 
Or comfort from a reckless monarch's hands," 

174a ("love together like pig and lamb"), 187b ("I engraved the 
memory of Bohan on the skin-coat of some of them "), 203a 
("this word is like a warm caudle to a cold stomach"), 209b 
("like a frog in a parsley-bed; as skittish as an eel"), 196b (the 
world compared to needlework). 

The Body: 89b (bowels of the earth). 

War: Shield 234b ("[I] will be thy shield against all men 
alive"); 243a (Cannon) ; 246: 

"What, know you not that castles are not won 
At first assault, and women are not woo'd 
When first their suitors proffer love to them ?" 

Subjective Life : 1 6 1 b : 

" Love, like a wag, straight div'd into my heart, 
And there did shrine the idea of yourself." 
cf. i66b. 

Miscellaneous Metaphors: Climbing: 201a (craft climbs high), 
220a, 225a: Mirror 241b ("the mirror of mishap"); cf. 215b 
(lantern i. e. model); Folding 92a ("Folding their wraths in 
cinders of fair Troy"), 153b: 

"And in her tresses she doth fold the looks 
Of such as gaze upon her golden hair." 

154a ("in her shape fast folded up my thoughts"), cf. i6ia; 
Lamps, 96a, 178b ("the crystal lamps of heaven"), 233a; Bal- 
ance 1 66a; 

"[Think you] that Margaret's love 

Hangs in the uncertain balance of proud time ?" 
'Cf. Ben Jonson I 114b. 
^Cf. Jonson, I 390a. 



CYRIL TOURNEUR 



Acted Published 

1603? 161 1 The Atheist's Tragedy - 

Entered 

1607 1607 The Revenger's Tragedy 



Vol. Pages 

I 5-155 

n 5-150 



63 



TOURNEUR. 

The poetic and imaginative merits of the work of this strange 
genius have been adequately appreciated by competent critics.' 
After his "acute sense for dramatic situations,'"" 
Dramatic ^ quality which he shares in common with Webster, 

. perhaps his most striking characteristic is " the 

boldness, felicity, and originality of his imagery 
and trick of putting things."^ Tourneur first perhaps of the 
minor Elizabethans satisfies that demand for intense and lurid 
expression which seems to us to be the dramatic ideal of the 
period, at least in tragedy. Kyd has gleams of the same thing, 
and so has Marlowe in a mightier way; but both are marred by 
mere hyperbole in overmeasure; and even Marlowe only rarely '' 
condenses the utterance of passion into single lines and phrases 
of such burning intensity. " For single lines of that intense 
and terrible beauty which makes incision in the memory, there 
is none, after Shakspere, to compare with him but Webster," 
writes Mr. Swinburne.^ Crudeness, extravagance, and hyperbole, 
are among the faults of Tourneur's work; but much of his 
imagery is comparatively free from these blemishes, and is 
inspired with imaginative brevity and force. Especially is this 
true of The Revenger' s Tragedy, which is distinctly superior to The 
Aiheisfs Tragedy, and by which Tourneur ought chiefly to be 
judged. 

In its excess Tourneur's imagination descends to such 
Hyperbole in examples of hyperbole and extravagance as the 
Tourneur following : I 54 : 

'Lamb, Swinburne, J. A. Symonds, J. C. Collins, etc. 

^Symonds, Introduction to Mermaid ed. of Webster and Tourneur, p. xii. 

3 Tourneur ed. J. C. Collins Introd., p. xlix. 

-•E. g. as in "See where Christ's blood streams in the firmament," etc. 

s Essays and Studies, p. 310. 

65 



66 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

" Drop out 
Mine eyeballs and let envious Fortune play 
At tennis with 'em." 

I 119 : "I could now commit 

x\ murder, were it but to drink the fresh 
Warm blood of him I murder'd to supply 
The want and weakness of my own, 
'Tis grown so cold and phlegmatic." 

I 136: " His gasping sighs are like the falling noise 

Of some great building when the groundwork breaks." 

Cf. I 115,11 46, 52, 78, 80, 115. Sometimes indeed the 
originality and power of Tourneur's imagination is characteristi- 
cally displayed in these very extravagances : e. g. II 54 : 

"Hast thou beguiled her of salvation, 
And rubU'd hell o'er with honey .?" 
or II 90 : 

" Let our two other hands tear up his lids, 
And make his eyes like co?nels shine through blood.'" 

Perhaps intense imaginative suggestiveness is the first char- 
acteristic of Tourneur's work. Sometimes the effect is produced 

by the use of a periphrastical image, of an innu- 
Sis endo conveyed through a picture, as, for example, 

Imaginative ^^^^^^^ Castabella says to Rousard : "I'll give you a 
Suggestiveness ■' tt , t 

jewel to hang in your ear. — Hark ye — 1 can never 

love you" (I 27); or I 13 : 

"What, ha' you washed your eyes wf tears this morning ? 

II 70 : "Rise my lords, _>'^?^r knees sign his release 

We freely pardon him."" 

II 37 : "if, at the next sitting, 

Judgment speak all in gold'' [i. e. yield to bribes]. 

II 84: "Why does yon fellow falsify highways 

And/«/ his life betiveen the judge's lips?" 

II 105: " hoping at last 

To pile up all my wishes on his breast" 

[i. e. to glut my revenge on him]. See also I 148. 

'Cf. Massinger, TAe Duke of Milan. II i : 

"I am merciful, 
And dotage signs your pardon." 



CYRIL TOURNEUR. 67 

Sometimes it is rather by ellipsis and condensation : 
I 29 : "Time cuts ^^circumstance; I must be brief.'" 
II 38 : " Wipe your lady fro7n your eyes y 
^ II 59 (to be iinvardwith — cf. Kyd, Hazlitt's Dods- 

ley V 168); cf. II 130 (to have made my revenge 
familiar with him ;" cf. II 38). 

I 9 : "the scorn of their discourse 

Turns smiling back upon your backwardness." 

II 65 : Is the day out a' the socket ?"^ 

Sometimes, combined with the elliptical swiftness and the 
periphrastical significance of the figure, the mere vividness or 
Striking and beauty of the comparison, or the ethical impressive- 
Impressive ness of its application, explain the secret of its 
Comparisons effectiveness : 

I 34 : "Your gravity becomes your perish'd soul 

As hoary mouldiness does rotten fruit." 

II 51 : "Your tongues have struck hot irons on my face." 

68 : "Thy wrath, like flaming wax, hath spent itself." 

85 : "Ladies, with false forms 

Y^ou deceive men, but cannot deceive worms." 

120: "Are you so barbarous to set iron nipples — [daggers] 
Upon the breast that gave you suck ?" 

127 : "I could scarce 

Kneel out my prayers, and had much ado, 
In three hours' reading, to untwist so much 
Of the black serpent as vou wound about me." 

139 : "to stab home their discontents." 

Sometimes we meet a subtle introversion of thought phrased 
in striking form, — what perhaps, with other things, a writer in 

the Retrospective Review'^ had in mind in speaking 
Introspective ^ r o 

Conceits of the "metaphysical " vein in Tourneur's poetry: 

II 24: "Am I far enough from myself?" 
51 : "Mother, come from that poisonous woman there." 

' Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, I ii : 

"time Cuts off occasions." 
'Cf. Romeo and Juliet, III v 9 : " Night's candles are burnt out " 
3 Vol. VII 333. 



68 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

124 : "Joy's a subtile elf. 

I think man's happiest when he forgets himself.'" 

It will thus be seen that Tourneur is master of a certain sort 
of dramatic imagery, and that his power largely depends upon it. 
His diction is highly metaphorical, but at the same time highly 
dramatic. Most of the mere machinery of the older poetic dic- 
tion is abandoned in Tourneur :' metaphor and simile become 
full of meaning at every turn in his lines. Similes of a brief sort 
are freely employed;^ personification, both full and concealed, 
also is used with effect: e. g. II 33: "Sword, I durst make a 
promise of him to thee," etc. 

37 : "Step forth, thou bribeless officer" [to his sword]. 

78 : " Grief swum in their eyes." 

Cf. I 9, 17, 40 (the passage quoted in Lamb, — the sea weep- 
ing over Charlemont's body), 48, 55, 133; 11 8, 10, 14,24, 25, 
35, 52, 67,69. 

RANGE AND SOURCE OF IMAGERY. 

NATURE: Aspects of the Sky, The Elements, etc.: I 92 ("this 
little world of man"); I 17 (the heavens weeping), II 80 ("yon 
silver ceiling"), 90 (comets), 32 (eclipse), 137 ("I shine in tears 
like the sun in April;" cf. I 79); Clouds I 94; Storms I 57 
(words a wind laid by a shower of tears) cf. II 122 ; Fire I 55 
(stars like sparks); II 56 ("the maid, like an unlighted taper. 
Was cold and chaste"), 62, 65, 68, 126, 139; Thunder I 39; 
Snow I 50 ; Ice II 124 ; Spring I 79. 

Aspects of Waters, The Sea, etc.: Water I 52, 74 (fancy, 
like troubled waters, reflects brokenly), II 94 ("words spoke 
in tears. Are like the murmurs of the waters, the sound is 
loudly heard but cannot be distinguish'd"); Rivers I 130, 6 

' Cf. Webster, 49b : " There's nothing of so infinite vexation 
As man's own thoughts." 

' He however is not free from occasional conceits and plays on words : e. 
g. I 79, 118, 129, II 41, 44, 75, 78, 79, 87 (" a g-rawf look"), 92, lOl ("there's a 
doom would make a woman dumb "), 104, 119, 122, 126. Classical and literary 
allusion is rare : Tantalus I 32, Pillars of Hercules I 78, Tereus I 115, Occasion 
II 8, 10; a Latin quotation II 35; Judas II 28. 

^One or two longer ones appear : I 145 (8 11.), 146 (5 11.). 



CYRIL TOURNEUR. 69 

("pleasure only flows Upon the stream of riches"), cf. 28 ; II 61 
(flow); Sea I 40-41 (personified), I 130 (the shipwreck of the 
vessel of the body"); II 29 ("past my depth"); I 79 (tears like 
April dew); II 26 ("I have seen patrimonies wash'd a' pieces"); 
II 44 ("spring with the dew a' the Court"), 137. 

Aspects of the Earth, Vegetable World, etc.: Metal II 121, II 
14 (gilt) ; Clay II 102, 105 ; II 146 (marble impudence); Trees, 
Branches, etc., I 8 (children like branches and receive sap), 
119 (aspen leaf); I 146 (early death like fresh-gathered herbs); 
Fruit I 34 ("your gravity becomes your perish'd soul As hoary 
mouldiness does rotten fruit"), 128. 

Animal "World : Birds, etc., II 15 ("That lady's name has 
spread such a fair wing Over all Italy"); I 42 ("Thou art a 
screech owl"), so 54 ; I 58 (raven) ; II 36 ("fed the ravenous vul- 
ture of his lust ") ; I 47 (goose); Serpent II 15, 37, 127; Flies 
II 129; Bees, wax, etc., I 64, II 68, 123; II 36 ("The duchess' 
youngest son, — that moth to honor"); Dormice I 50; Dogs I 
151 ; Horse II 55 (spur, etc.). 

Fabulous Natural History: Phoenix I 78 ; I 135 (like the cries 
of mandrakes). 

MAN AND HUMAN LIFE. Arts and Learning : I 6 (" Death 
casts up Our total sum of joy"), 12 ("Shall I serve For nothing 
but a vain parenthesis I' th' honor'd story of your family?"), 
15-16 (Castabella's farewell like the "imperious close Of a most 
sweet oration," 20 11.), II 137 ("All sorrows Must run their 
circles into joys"). 

Music: I 72, 91, 132, II 100, 106 ("I'll bear me in some 
strain of melancholy. And string niyself with heavy-sounding 
wire. Like such an instrument that speaks Merry things sadly"), 
121 ("quick in tune"), 139. 

Law: I 96 ("We enterchange th' indenture of our loves"), 
16 (kissing is the seal of love), 103 ("That fellow's life . . . Like 
a superfluous letter in the law, Endangers our assurance? — Scrape 
him out"), 139 ("In yon star-chamber thou shalt answer it"), II 
7 ("Vengeance, thou Murder's quit-rent," etc.), 41 ("To be his 
sin's attorney"),' 108, (writ of error, and certiorari), 129 (" 't'as 

'Cf. Webster 31a. 



yo METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

some eight returns like Michaelmas term"), 14 (Law's iron fore- 
head). 

Medical : I 82 (pleurisy), 85 (like a tetter), II 12 ("discon- 
tent, — the nobleman's consumption"), 69 (purge). 

Various Estates and Occupations : Government: I 55 (Stars 
— viceroys to the King of Nature), 92 (emperor and sub- 
jects), 133 (gold a queen), II 49 ("What's honesty? 'Tis but 
heaven's beggar"), 43 ("that foolish country girl , . . Chastity") ; 
II 7 (tenant), 44; II 11 ("Had his estate been fellow to his 
mind"), 24 ("That scholar in my cheeks, fool bashfulness"), 21 
(a bastard — the thief of nature), II 26 ("Thou hast been scriv- 
ener to much knavery"), cf. 105 ("He and his secretary the 
Devil"), cf. 12. 

Business : I 23 (to engross sin), 19 ("I will take your friend- 
ship up at use," etc.), 76 ("Set down the body. Pay Earth what 
she lent," etc.), II 125 ("put myself to common usury"), 30 
("honesty Is like a stock of money laid to sleep"). 

Agricultuke : II 9 ("he began By policy to open and unhusk 
me"), cf. 116. 

Building : I 43 (foundation, etc.), 46 ("My plot still rises, 
According to the model of mine own desires"), 118 ("this great 
chamber of the world"), 136; II 9, 34 ("be sad witnesses Of a fair 
comely building newly fallen, Being falsely undermined "), 80 
(stars and sky = " Yon silver ceiling," cf. Collins' note ad loc). 
I 142 ("to paint a rotten post), II 128 ("a virgin's honor is a 
crystal tower").. 

Domestic Images : I 30 (courage and love are brother and 
sister), II 31 ("let thy heart to him, Be as a virgin, close"), 
77 ("Your hope's as fruitless as a barren woman"), II 25 ("He is 
so near kin to this present minute"); Dowry II 36, cf. 39 ; 120 
(iron nipples). 

Dress and Ornament: I 20 ("She's like your diamond, a 
temptation in every man's eye, yet not yielding to any light 
impression herself"), 27 ("I'll giveyou a jewel to hang in your ear. — 
Hark ye — I can never love you"), 116 (eyes like diamonds) ; 
Cloth, etc., II 7 (three-piled flesh), 7 (death's vizard), 117 ("Nay, 



CYRIL TOURNEUR. 7 1 

doubt not 'tis in grain; I warrant it hold color"), 57 (knit and 
ravel), 123 ("To have her train borne up, and her soul trail I' the 
dirt"). 

Colloquial, Coarse, and Familiar Images : Tourneur has many 
gross comparisons, and a few of a colloquial sort. II 26 ("as 
familiar as an ague"), 52 ("Wer't not for gold and women 
there would be no damnation, — Hell would look like a lord's 
great kitchen without a fire in't"), 13 ("His violent act 
has . . . Stain'd our honors, Thrown ink upon the forehead of 
our State"), 34 ("I durst . . . Venture my lands in heaven"), 41 
(to take the wall of), 72 ("here is a pin [showing his dagger] 
Should quickly prick your bladder"), 103 ("Slaves are but nails 
to drive out one another"), 129 (the fly-flop of vengeance), 132 
("he that dies drunk falls into hell-fire, like a bucket of water, 
qush, qush!"), 135 ("one of his cast sins"); Birth, etc., I 58, 150, 
II 36; Bawd, etc., I 99, 118, 153; I 62 (Night — the murderer's 
mistress). 

The Body, Its Parts, Attributes, etc.: I 40 ("the full- 
stomached sea"); I 92 ("I've lost a signory .... A wart 
upon the body of the world"); II 14 (Law's iron forehead); 46 
(heaven's finger); I 115 (the face of heaven); 146 (the canker of 
sin) ; II 89 (" Now I '11 begin To stick thy soul with ulcers ") ; II 
55 ("How must I blister my soul") ; Sleep II 149. 

Subjective Life, Religion, etc.: I 11 ("Here are my sons,^ 
There's my eternity"); I 79 ("On the altar of his tomb I 
sacrifice My tears").' Paradise II 47 ; Devil II 28; Conjuring, 
spirits, etc.. I 52, 87 ; Influence of the Stars I 133. 

Death, the Grave, etc. : I no ("this convocation-house of 
dead men's skulls"), 114 (" The poison of your breath, Evap- 
orated from so foul a soul. Infects the air more than the 
damps that rise From bodies but half rotten in their graves"), 
II 37 (monument), 72 ("people's thoughts will soon be buried"), 
13 ("The bowel'd corpse May be sear'd in ; but . . . The faults of 
great men through their sear'd clothes break"). 

War: I 13 ("Shall I . . . . hang but like an empty Scutch- 

■ Cf. Marlowe II 60, Webster 47b. 



72 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

eon "), cf. II 60 (heraldry) ; I 76 (" open war with sin "), 145 (like a 
warlike navy); II 9 ("the insurrection of his lust"), 41 (seige), II 
8 ("Thy wrongs and mine are for one scabbard fit"), 62 ("there's 
gunpowder i' th' court"). 

The Stage and the Drama: I 57 (" Here's a sweet comedy "), 
155 (their tragedies) cf. II 7, 80, 85, 91, 146, II 34 (play a 
part), II 144 ("Mark, Thunder! Dost know thy cue, thou 
big voiced crier?"), 52: (" O, Angels, clap your wings upon 
the skies, And give this virgin crystal plaudites ").' 

Miscellaneous: Melt II 6, 128 ; Mirror, glass, II 128 ; Black II 
74 ("make him curse and swear, and so die black"); Spot II 
122 ; Poison II 33, 51, 62, 79 (" O let me venom Their souls with 
curses!"), 120, 127; Instrument I 46, II 31; Coin and 
Counterfeit II 9, 10, 61, 149; Edge II 45 (" My spirit turns 
edge"), 72 ("go you before And set an edge upon the execu- 
tioner"), 103 ("hope of preferment Will grind him to an 
edge "). 

Nature plays a comparatively insignificant part in these two 
tragedies. It is human life in its various aspects which chiefly is 
used to illustrate human life. Law is well represented. Several 
domestic and colloquial images are used with much effect. But 
the morbid and the crudely baleful appear largely in all of 
Tourneur's work and weaken its effect, so that the vivid origi- 
nality and the lurid beauty of his imagery cannot save it. This 
very imagery is infected with the dark and subjective quality of 
his mind, as appears not only in his various extravagant, gross, 
and repulsive comparisons, but also in the general tone and the 
specific application of many others. 

^ Cf. Massinger, The Duke of Milan, V ii : 

" . . . . good angels 
Clap their celestial wings to give it plaudits." 

Similarly The Maid of Honor, N i. 



JOHN WEBSTER 



Acted 




Published 




Pages 


1607? 


(Fleay) 


1612 


The White Devil, or 
Coro/nbona 


Vittoria 

5- 50 


1612? 


" 


1623 


The Duchess of Malfi 


- 59-101 


1610 ? 


" 


1623 


The DeviFs Lazv Case 


107-145 


1609 ? 


" 


1654 


Appius and Virginia - 


- 149-180 



73 



WEBSTER. 

Perhaps nothing so much as a close and careful study of his 
imagery can bring home to one the extraordinary originality 
and power of Webster in his particular sphere. 
Originality Webster worked consciously, deliberately, and with 
and Power of ^ thorough command of his materials. His pages 
his Dramatic ° , , • •. r .1 • 

Diction ^^^ strewn with tropes,' and, m spite of their pro- 

fusion, such is the keenness of his marvelous 
" analogical instinct " and the dramatic force of his imagination 
that scarcely ever do they seem forced or out of keeping. 
Language here seems to reach the extreme of ruthless and biting 
intensity. There is scarcely any faded imagery, and there are 
very few conventional tags ;^ everything stands out in sharp lines, 
as if etched. The characteristic fault of Webster's imagery, the 
defect of his peculiar quality, is that he errs if anything on the side 
of the bizarre,3 or even of the grotesque.'' This criticism could be 
enforced bv many citations. Let two or three typical similes, 
chosen at random, suthce : 

9a " 'Tis fixed with nails of diamond to inevitable necessity." 
60b " He runs as if he were ballassed with quicksilver." 

80a "A politician is the devil's quilted anvil ; 

He fashions all sins on him, and the blows 
Are never heard." 

' To represent the Range and Sources of the imagery of his four plays, I 
am compelled to devote thirteen pages, against about four for Greene's four plays, 
six for Peek's five, and eight for Marlowe's six. 

= Absence of the usual poetical phrases, of poetical as distinguished from 
dramatic imagery, is doubtless what the writer of the article on Webster in the 
Retrospective Review (Vol. VII p. 90) means in saying that " in poetical imagery 
he seldom indulges." See to the same effect, Ward, Hist. Eng. Dram. Lit., II 
261. 

3 So Mezieres, Contemp. et Succ. de Shaks., 227. 

•t Lowell, Old Eng. Dram., 71. 

75 



76 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Not only the analogical but the logical faculty also is inces- 
santly in play in Webster, but the ethical mordacity of his mind 

is such that he rarely falls into mere intellectualism 
Dramatic ^^^ conceits.' The conceit for the conceit's sake 

is seldom Webster's fault. It has usually an 
emotional connotation and seldom is out of keeping. Thus 
Romelio's bombastic boast : 

" I cannot set myself so many fathom 
Beneath the height of my true heart as fear," 

is strikingly illustrative of his character, emphasized as it is by 
Ariosto's dry comment : "Very fine words, I assure you, if they 
were To any purpose."^ So the pathetic subtlety of the last 
words of the worn and tortured Duchess : 

"... Heaven-gates are not so highly arch'd 
As princes' palaces ; they that enter there 
Must go upon their knees." \^K>ieels^^ 

And yet the simile, express or implied, the usual mark of the 

deliberate and self-conscious mind, is perhaps more prevalent in 

Webster's pages than the metaphor in its various 
The Short , tT i , , ■ r , 

Simile his forms. But there is scarcely anything of the 

Favorite Form relaxed and epical movement of imagery sometimes 

appearing in Peele and Marlowe.* Webster " was the 

most literary among the Elizabethans, after Jonson."= This 

statement is exemplified not only in Webster's general method of 

workmanship, but also in the abundance of his historical and 

literary allusions. Classical ornament also is not rare in Webster, 

although there is little of that superficial varnish of Latin myth- 

' Examples of conceits in Webster are : 152b ("Yon great star-chamber;" 
cf. Tourneur, I p. 139), 132b, 50a. Once or twice Webster falls into mixed 
metaphor: i6ob, i6ib ("under his smooth calmness cloaks a tempest "). He 
is practically free from Euphuism. Examples of Play on Words : 33a, 38b, 
62b, 112b, 152b. 

-Devil's Law Case, p. 132b. 

^Duchess of Malfi, p. 89a. 

4 Prolonged similes appear, however, pp. 6a, 11, 37a, 38b, 77a, 78a, 
79a, 150a. See also the prolonged metaphorical passages lob, 21a, 32b, 83b- 
84a; and similes continued in metaphors 50a, 167b. 

s Gosse, Seventeenth Century Studies, p. 47. 



JOHN WEBSTER. 77 

ology so affected by the earlier school of Lyly, Peele, Greene and 

Marlowe.' 

Intellect applied to intensely, even remorselessly, tragic 

emotion, but subtle, swift, and often abrupt in action is the note 

of Webster's style. Implied simile, where the 

Logical application is left undefined, to bear itself home 

!'^"\!r-^r with a sudden rush, is a favorite device. Bosola, 

his Mind 

who is emploved for an assassination, is promised 

attendants to assist him in his bloody deed. He refuses their 

aid in these terms : " Physicians that apply horse-leeches to any 

rank swelling used to cut off their tails that the blood may run 

through them the faster ; let me have no train when I go to shed 

blood, lest it make me have a greater when I ride to the gallows." 

But the explicit simile is the more common. Note, for example, 

what effective use Vittoria makes of them in the famous trial 

scene, — their effect being ironically heightened by the pompous 

declaration of the lawyer that she 

" Knows not her tropes nor figures, nor is perfect 
In the academic derivation 
Of grammatical elocution." (p. 20.) 

Indeed, oftentimes Webster's similes are logical analogies or 
arguments rather than pictures, e. g. 32a : 

" Best natures do commit the grossest faults. 
When they're given o'er to jealousy, as best wine, 
Dying, makes strongest vinegar." 
Or 22b " Condemn you me for that the duke did love me? 
So vou may blame some fair and crystal river 
For that some melancholic distracted man 
Hath drown'd himself in 't." 

The acrid nature of Webster's genius is everywhere felt in 
his pungent use of similitudes. The sardonic character of 

'Striking examples of classical allusion are : 31a ("I have drunk Lethe"), 
169a; 40a, 83b (Charon's boat), 38a ("Like the two slaughtered sons of 
CEdipus"), 48b Hypermnestra, 59b Tantalus, 6ia Hercules, 63b Vulcan's net, 
69a lupiter and Danae, 75b Venus' doves, 75b Syrinx, Daphne, etc., 76a the 
ludgment of Paris; The Furies, 35a, 48a, 127b, etc.; 127b Amazons, 150a 
Briareus, 162b Colossus, 169a Rhadamant, 171b lanus, 173b Actseon, 172b Isis. 
See also: .^Esop 37b, 44a, 133a; Lucian, etc., 48a; Pliny 60b; Tasso 78a; 
Homer 13a, 30a, 32a; Fortune's wheel 26b, 66b, 83a. 



78 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Flamineo in The White Devil is heightened by the irony of his 
incessant similes. So in The Duchess of Malfi Antonio's rather 
colorless virtues are artfully depicted through his fondness for 
sententious comparisons. 

Metaphorical ideas concentrated into a burning word or 
phrase are not uncommon in Webster and bear a striking resem- 
blance to similar strokes in Tourneur : e. g. 8oa, 

_ . "Your direction shall lead me by the hand:" 8sb, 

Comparisons -' > j > 

"I am full of daggers;" loob, "I hold my weary 
soul in my teeth;" 117b, "the stale injury of wine" [insults 
given in drink]; 74b, " Her guilt treads on Hot burning coul- 
ters;"' 117b, "I reserve my rage to sit on my sword's point;" 
cf. 88a, "riot begins to sit on thy forehead;" 125b, "lock'd 
your poniard in my heart;" 169a, "His memory to virtue and 
good men Is still carousing Lethe." The poignant intensity, 
the strange and cogent applicability, of Webster's figures startle 
us at every turn. All these effects can be illustrated only by ref- 
erence to the list of tropes cited below (" Range and Sources of 
Imagery"). 

In such a tragic and fearful world as Webster creates the 
ethical preoccupation of his mind, morbid and excessive as its 

quality often is, cannot but be prominent at all 
The Persist- 
entl Eth' 1 poii^ts.^ Questions of fate, salvation, sin and 

Motive repentance are constantly reflected in his imagery : 

97b: "Security some men call the suburbs of hell, 
Only a dead wall between." 

99a: "Servant. Where are you, sir? 

Antonio [dying]. Very near my home," 

loib: " Bosola. Mine is another voyage. [Dies]." 

131a: "Such a guilt as would have lain 

Howling forever at your wounded heart 
And rose with you to judgment." 

cf. 47b : " Millions are now in graves, which last day 
Like mandrakes shall rise shrieking." 

' Cf. Tourneur, II 51. 

*As Lowell remarks (Old Eng. Dram., 69), Webster,'like Chapman, is fond 
of metaphysical apothegms. 



JOHN WEBSTER. 79 

And see the references under "Subjective Life, Religion, etc." 
(p. 117 below). The penchant of his mind for images of death 
and the grave, so often remarked upon,' is largely a part of the 
same thing, save that it more distinctly emphasizes the morbid 
quality of his genius." 

Hyperbole, except of a purely dramatic sort, is infrequent in 
Webster.' Akin to his metaphysical predilection is his fondness 
Sententious- for sententious figures. These appear especially as 
ness exit lines or ending couplets: e. g. i8a: 

"Both flowers and weeds spring when the sun is warm, 
And great men do great good or else great harm" (cf. 32a). 

27b : "Your flax soon kindles, soon is out again ; 

But gold slow heats, and long will hot remain." 

Cf. also 36a, 39a, 76b, 82a, 97b, loob, etc. 

Proverbial phrases also are not uncommon.* There is the 
usual amount of formal personification in Webster, skilfully 

managed for dramatic effect; e. g. 12b: "Lust 

Personifica- . , , \.- \ ^ -u • ji " 

carries her sharp whip At her own girdle; 77a 

(Apologue of Reputation, Love and Death); 91b 

''Sacred innocence, that sweetly sleeps On turtles' feathers"; 

156a: "O Rome, thou'rt grown a most unnatural mother 
To those have held thee by the golden locks 
From sinking into ruin." 

Cf. also 40b, 48, 88a, looa, loSa, 117b, 152a, 174b, 178a. 

'E. g. by Taine, Eng. Lit. Bk. II, c. II, Sect. VI ("A sombre man, whose 
thoughts seem incessantly to be haunting tombs and charnel-houses"); so also 
J. A. Symonds, Introd. to Ed. of Webster and Tourneur (Mermaid Sen), p. 
xxii; Dyce, Introd. to Ed. of Webster, p. xv, and others. 

2 See the examples cited below, p. 119. See especially the series of com- 
parisons, p. 2ia; also 37a (simile of the rack), 135b ("to weave seaming-lace 
With the bones of their husbands that were long since buried "), 139a. Note 
also the references p. 87 under "Medical." ^ 

3 A few striking examples occur : 15a (" Hell to my affliction Is mere snow- 
water"), 31b, 73b, 77a, 90a ("Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out; The 
element of water moistens the earth, But blood flies upwards and bedews the 
heavens"), 91a, ii8b, etc. 

*E. g. 135a, 136a, 143a, 162b, etc. 



8o METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Webster not infrequently repeats tropes and ideas, some- 
Trick of Self- tiroes verbatim, in different plays. Numerous 
Repetition examples will be seen below. 

Finally it should be noted that Appius and Virgi/iia differs 
largely from the other plays in diction and figure. It is more 
rhetorical and declamatory, it contains fewer striking and orig- 
inal similitudes; and with a sort of dramatic propriety its lan- 
guage is more latinized and conventional. The attempt is 
obviously in another vein than the Italianate tragedies of The 
White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi. 

RANGE AND SOURCES OF IMAGERY. 

Mr. Churton Collins' remarks upon "that quick analogical 
instinct which loads 'Vittoria Corombona' and 'The Duchess of 
Malfi' with wide-ranging imagery, metaphor, and simile." And 
Webster's range is wide, although the incisive emphasis and 
effectiveness and the freedom from conventionality of most of 
his figurative language is such that we recognize more readily his 
range and force than we do in the case of more colorless writers. 

Inanimate nature does not play so much of a part in his 
metaphors and similes as does animate nature, while the pre- 
dominance of allusions to human life and interests is striking 
evidence of the departure of tragic writing from the more 
purely poetic traditions of the pre-Shaksperian school. 

NATURE. Aspects of the Sky, the Elements, etc.: Heavens, 
65b ("may our sweet affections, like the spheres, Be still in 
motion," etc.); Sun and Sunshine, 35b ("In all the weary min- 
utes of my life. Day ne'er broke up till now"), ma, 149b ("See 
how your kindred and your friends are muster'd To warm them 
at your sunshine"); Stars, 5b ("fore-deeming you An idle 
meteor"), cf. 40b, 48a ("This thy death Shall make me like a 
blazing ominous star"), 7b, 49b; Eclipse, 76b, 144b; Clouds, 
io8b, nob, ("this court mist"), 170a, 122a, 150b, 151b, 34b, 
88b ("Mist of error"); Shadow 137b, 140a, 150a, 155b; Thun- 
der 5a, 12b, 27b; Lightning 6b ("prompt as lightning"), so 
71b, 82a ("You see what power Lightens in great men's breath ") 

' In the introduction to his edition of Tourneur, p. xlii. 



JOHN WEBSTER. 8i 

164b ("This your plot shall burst about your ears Like thunder- 
bolts"); Storms, Showers, etc., 35a, ma ("Crying as an April 
shower i' the sunshine"), lob (storm), 34b, 88b ("Their death a 
hideous storm of terror"), 142b, 65b (tempest), so 72b, 74a, 
i35^> 159^' i6ob, 13b (whirlwind), 31a, 82b: 

"Like to calm weather 
At sea before a tempest, false hearts speak fair 
To those they intend most mischief." 

Similarly i6ib, 50a, 62b: ("What follows? never rained such 
showers as these Without thunderbolts i' the tail of them; whose 
throat must I cut?"); 155b (hail); Earthquakes 9b, 177a; Whirl- 
pool 72b; Fire 44b, 86a (the fire of revenge), 97a, 135a ("no 
more mercy Than ruinous fires in great tempests"), 139b (wild 
fire in the blood), 158a (the fire of sedition), 169b, 177b; Heat 
and Cold 22b ("My frosty answer"), 70a (freeze), 97a (ice), 179b 
("This sight hath . . . Ic'd all my blood"); 32a ("Your 
good heart gathers like a snowball, Now your affection's cold"); 
133b; Snow loib, 169b (snow of age), 172a (laws writ in snow). 

Seasons : 109a (Spring of youth), 107a (the springtide), 109a 
("with me 'Tis fall o' the leaf"), 149b ("your stormy winter"), 
2 1 a, 169b (winter of age). 

Waters, Sea, etc.: 19a (like grasping water), 143b (tide of 
fortune), i i8a : 

" I am pour'd out 
Like water! the greatest rivers i' the world 
Are lost in the sea, and so am L" 

iia ("As rivers to find out the ocean "), 22b, 

26a: "let the stigmatic wrinkles in thy face, 

Like to the boisterous waves in a rough tide, 

One still overtake another." 

32a ("Now the tide's turn'd, the vessel's come about"), 

32a: "The sea's more rough and raging than calm rivers. 
But not so sweet nor wholesome. A quiet woman 
Is a still water under a great bridge, 
A man may shoot her safely." 

67b: "Say you were lineally descended from King Pepin . . . 
What of this? Search the heads of the greatest rivers in the 
world, you shall find them but bubbles of water." 59a (" a 



82 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

prince's court Is like a common fountain," etc.), cf. lob (Princes 
compared to dials); cf. 79a; 78b (moisture drawn out of the sea, 
returns to it). 

Aspects of Earth: 64a (wilderness), 11 (policy winds like 
the crooked path to a mountain's top), 27b ("I'll stand Like a 
safe valley, which low bends the knee To some aspiring moun- 
tain "), 139b (mountain and valley), cf. 165b, 151b (firm as the 
earth and its poles), 172b ("Thou lov'st me, Appius, as the 
earth loves rain; Thou fain would'st swallow me"), 27a ("What, 
are you turn'd all marble?"), 36b ("your iron days "), 60a (rust), 
96a (" remove This lead from off your bosom "); cf. 77a, 169a 
("False metals bear the touch, but brook not fire"), 176a (Sand; 
shelf); 31a (" My loose thoughts Scatter like quicksilver"); See 
"Adamant " below, p. 85. 

Various : 96a (flatterers like echoes); Blasted lob, 108b; Atom 
114a. 

The Vegetable "World : Trees 6a (bear best fruits, trans- 
planted), 17a (elms), 35a (like the yew tree), 

39a (" That tree shall long time keep a steady foot. 

Whose branches spread no wider than the root"), 

38a (like a walnut tree cudgelled for its fruit), 59b (like plum 
trees), 62a (" the oft shaking of the cedar tree Fastens it more 
at root "), 79a (like a cedar), 66a: 

" That we may imitate the loving palms, 
Best emblem of a peaceful marriage. 
That never bore fruit, divided." (Cf. Dyce's note.) 

83a ("My laurel is all withered"). 

1 20a ("Yield no more light Than rotten trees which shine in the 
night"), 151b (twig and branches), 159a (branches), 167b (the 
-willow yields to the storm; the oak is overthrown); 178a (To fall 
like a rotted tree); Vine 29b, 17a : 

"Like mistletoe on sear elms spent by weather. 
Let him cleave to her, and both rot together." 

cf. 122b (" Wind about a man like rotten ivy"); Leaf 157a (aspen 
leaf); Roots 70b (to pull up by the roots); Flowers 19a ("When 
age shall turn thee White as a blooming hawthorn "), 82b (" here's 



JOHN WEBSTER. 83 

another pitfall that's strew'd o'er With roses "); iiib (" Kiss that 
tear from her lip; you'll find the rose The sweeter for the dew"), 
142b (Man's life like that of flowers); Mushroom 25b, so 133a; 
Fruit 137b ("take from me forty years, And I was such a summer 
fruit as this"), 138b (the bitter fruit of love); 20b, 47a ("I'll stop 
your throat With winter-plums"). 

The Animal World proportionately appears very frequently 
among Webster's figures. Ben Jonson,^ writing mostly in 
comedy, however, while Webster's genius is tragic and romantic, 
— alone in our list exceeds this proportion. 

Fish, etc.: Sia ("he lifts up's nose, like a foul porpoise 
before a storm"), 83b-84 (fable of the salmon and the dog-fish), 
107b ("whiles he hopes to catch a gilt-head, He may draw up a 
gudgeon "), 63b (like the crab which goes backward). 

Reptiles : iia ("The way ascends not straight, but imitates 
The subtle foldings of a winter's snake "), 1 2a (" Repentance then 
will follow like the sting Plac'd in the adder's tail "), 43b ("the 
bed of snakes is broke"), 70b (snake), 85b (vipers), 172a ("Thy 
violent lust Shall, like the biting of the envenom'd aspic. Steal 
thee to hell"), Toad i6a (cf. 6ia), Cameleon i66b; Tortoise 
27b, 31b. 

Insects: 27b ("Treason, like spiders weaving nets for flies^ 
By her foul work is found, and in it dies"), 6ib (the law like a 
spider's web), 113b ("entangle themselves In their own work 
like spiders ")., 

36a: "Glories, like glowworms, afar off shine bright, 

But look'd to near, have neither heat nor light." 

So 88a (verbatim), similarly 133a; 60a (like moths in cloth); cf, 
153b ("base moth-eaten peace");' 78b ("these lice," i. e., para- 
sites); 85b : 

"Things being at the worst begin to mend ; the bee 
When he hath shot his sting into your hand. 
May then plav with your eyelid." 

iioa (" For women's resolutions in such deeds, 

Like bees, light oft on flowers, and oft on weeds.") 

'Cf. Tourneur, II 36. 



84 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

i68b ("I am an ant, a gnat, a worm," etc.); ga (silkworm); 
Flies 114a. 

Birds : 38b (fowl); 93b (" Eagles commonly fly alone ; they 
are crows, daws, and starlings that flock together"); 26a (raven), 
so 41a, 44b, 144b; crow 133a; 39b (screech owl), so 40a, 76b, 
119b; 149b: 

" For some suspect of treason, all these swallows 
Would fly your stormy winter ; not one sing : 
Their music is the summer and the spring." 

46a (" We think cag'd birds sing, when indeed they cry "), 86b 
(" The robin-red-breast and the nightingale Never live long in 
cages "), 88a (simile of the lark in cage, 5 11.), cf. 7a, 83b (birds 
allured to the net); 76b (to clip wings), 49a: 

" O your gentle pity! 
I have seen a blackbird that would sooner fly 
To a man's bosom, than to stay the gripe 
Of the fierce sparrow-hawk." 

See also "Hawking" below, p. 89; 59b ("I will thrive some 
way; blackbirds fatten best in hard weather"); 64b ("like a 
taught starling") ; 82a ("buntings" depart as soon as fledged) ; 
127b (doves); 13b ("Forward lapwing! He flies with the shell 
on's head");' 150b ("Excellent lapwing I . . . He sings and 
beats his wings far from his nest ") ; 133a (" this poor thing With- 
out a name, this cuckoo hatch'd i' the nest Of a hedge-sparrow ! "), 
so 171b; 151a ("never did you see 'Mongst quails or cocks in 
fight a bloodier heel Than that your brother strikes with") ; 44a 
(fable of the peacock and the eagle). 

Wild Animals: 177b (lion-taming), 12b (lion), 83a (tiger), 
158a; 73a ("excellent hyena"); 176a ("Never did bear-whelp, 
tumbling down a hill, With more art shrink his head betwixt his 
claws Than I will work my safety"), 84b ("Where are your 
cubs? ") ; 5a (" Your wolf no longer seems to be a wolf Than when 
she's hungry"), 22b, 30b, 37b (holding a wolf by the ears), 40b, 
44b, 76b, 90a; 94b (fox), 8ia, 48a, 165a; 136b ("An old hunted 
hare; She has all her doubles"), 26a, 31b, loob; 1 13b (monkeys); 
157a ("You rough porcupine, ha! Do you bristle, do vou shoot 

'Cf. Hainlet, V ii iSo and notes. 



JOHN WEBSTER. 85 

your quills, you rogue?"); 176a ("I have learnt with the wise 
hedgehog, To stop my cave that way the tempest drives") ; 95b 
("like the mice That forsake falling houses"), 74a ("he seems to 
sleep The tempest out, as dormice do in winter "), 142a; 70a 
("This mole does undermine me"); 31b ("be not like A ferret, 
to let go your hold with blowing") ; iib (pole-cats). 

Domestic Animals : Horse i6ob (" Let the young man play 
still upon the bit") ; 7a ("Call his wit in question, you shall find 
it Merely an ass in's foot cloth") ; 6a (like shorn sheep to the 
slaughter) ; Dogs 7b (" Let her not go to church, but like a 
hound In lyam [=leashj at your heels "), 9b, 22a (" Cowardly 
dogs bark loudest"), 34b ("Like dogs that once get blood, they'll 
ever kill"), 37b (to unkennel), 49a ("Fate's a spaniel. We cannot 
beat it from us"), 153a (" Make you us dogs, yet not allow us 
bones ? "), 1 60b, 84a (" Like English raastives that grow fierce with 
tying"), 82b (bloodhounds), 162b, 37b (^sop's fable of the dog 
and the shadow), 7 ib (" thou wast watch'd Like a tame elephant "). 

Fabulous Natural History : Adamant 9a, 30b (" We'll be 
differing as two adamants ; The one shall shun the other "), 
83a ("Every small thing draws a base mind to fear. As the ada- 
mant draws iron"), 96a ("breasts hoop'd with adamant");' 143a; 
20b (like apples of Sodom), 89a ("Come, violent death. Serve for 
mandragora to make me sleep !"), mandrake 19a (mistletoe or 
oak seldom found without a mandrake by it), 47b 

"Millions are now in graves, which at last day. 
Like mandrakes, shall rise shrieking."" 

So 72b (mandrakes make one mad); i68a (aconite as a remedy 

against serpents' stings). 177a: 

"What devil 
Did arm thy fury with the lion's paw. 
The dragon's tail, with the bull's double horn, 
The cormorant's beak, the cockatrice's eye. 
The scorpion's teeth?" 

76b (the basilisk's eyes), 94b; 8ia("Mark Prince Ferdinand; 
A very salamander lives in's eye, To mock the eager violence of 

'Cf. in Chapman 158 the same phrase. 
= Cf. Romeo and Juliet, IV iii 47. 



86 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

fire"); 172b ("a weeping crocodile"), 32b (fable of the crocodile 
and the wren — in Herodotus "the trochilus"); 27b ("patient as 
the tortoise, let this camel Stalk o'er your back unbruis'd") ; 27b 
(the lion and the mice); i ib (unicorn's horn as an antidote) ; 
1 2a (eagles that gaze upon the sun) ; 26a (" like your melancholic 
hare, Feed after midnight"), 44a ("we now, like the partridge, 
Purge the disease with laurel"); 8ia (foxes that carry fire in their 
tails); 87a (We'll sing, like swans, to welcome death"); 9a (the 
silkworm fasts one day in three). 

MAN AND HUMAN LIFE : Arts and Learning : Chronicle 75a 
("You are Your own chronicle too much and grossly Flatter your- 
self "), 128b; 91b (conscience a black register); 84a ("I will no 
longer study in the book Of another's heart ") ; 1 1 2a (" Though I 
were to wait the time That scholars do in taking their degree In 
the noble arts"), 119a (" Your patience has not ta'en the right 
degree Of wearing scarlet," etc.) ;i42a (death's lesson); Music 73b 
(" put yourself in tune "), 71b (like a poor lute player), 79b, 11 5a, 
124a; Painting 50b ("I limned this night-piece"), 97a (to "lay 
fair marble colors" upon), 127b ("As men report of our best pic- 
ture makers, We love the piece we are in hand with better Than all 
the excellent work we have done before"), 137b ("Painting and 
epitaphs are both alike, — They flatter us and say we have been 
thus"). Picture 23a, 6ib, 86b. 

Various Estates and Occupations : 38b (ambassadors), 49b 
("I shall welcome death As princes do some great ambassa 
dors; Fll meet thy weapon half way"); 96a (secretary); 155a 
(mJser); 162a (juggler), 28b; 162b (giant); 47b (like ranting 
preachers) ; 37b (swear like a falconer, lie like an almanac 
maker, smell of sweat like an under-tennis-court-keeper), 37b 
(" Lovers' oaths are like mariners' prayers, uttered in extremity "), 
112b (park-keeper), 152b (stewards), loib (^friend), 142b ("is 
not death A hungry companion?"), 155b, 173a (attendants), 
155b (servants), 65a ("1 have long serv'd virtue, And ne'er 
ta'en wages of her"); 86b ("I am acquainted with sad misery 
As the tann'd galley slave is with his oar"), i8b (prisoner), 
155b (jail), 174b; 178a (grief a tell-tale); iioa (to do knight's 
service). 



JOHN WEBSTER. 87 

Law: 31a ("executor To all my sins");' iiib (livery and 
seisin), 65b (debt and discharge -"Quietus est"), 46a, 120a 
(supersedeas), 123b (caveat), 152a ("The rich fee-simple of Vir- 
ginia's heart"), 121a (false executors), 173a [" Virgiutus. Thus I 
surrender her into the court Of all the gods. [^Kills Virginiay^), 
152b (" Yon great star-chamber ; "),' 3gb (lease of life), 21a. 

Medical: i6a ("Look, his eye's bloodshed [bloodshot?], like 
a needle a chirurgeon stitcheth a wound with"), 60a ("places 
in the court are but like beds in the hospital, where this man's 
head lies at that man's foot, and so lower and lower"), 13b 
{" Francisco de Medici . . . Come, you and I are friends. Bra- 
chiano. Most wishedly : Like bones, which, broke in sunder, 
and well set. Knit the more strongly "), 31a ("the corrupted limb 
cut off"), 47b ("These are two cupping glasses [showing pistols^ 
that shall draw All my infected blood out "), 62a, 179a ("I'll 
fetch that shall anatomize his sin"), cf. 21a ("dead bodies . . . 
wrought upon by surgeons"), 65a (ambition a madness, not kept 
in chains, but in fair lodgings); Physicians 9b ("You area 
sweet physician "), 82a ("physicians thus. With their hands full of 
money, use to give o'er Their patients"), 97a (as physicians 
applying horse-leeches, cut off their tails), 119a ("Are you such a 
leech For patience?"), 120a ("these graves and vaults, Which oft 
do hide physicians' faults"); Medicines 5b (physic), i ib (uni- 
corn's horn as antidote), 26a ("Physicians that cure poisons, still 
do work With counter-poisons;" so i68a), 22b (gilded pills; so 
84a), 23b (pills), so 47b; Diseases 95b("Yond's my lingering 
consumption"), 125b, 71b (wound in the heart, etc.), 8a (Jealousy 
like the jaundice), 22a (palsy of fear), 24b, 31a, 73b, 31b ("What 
a damn'd imposthume is a woman's will ! "), 8ia (" Methinks her 
fault and beauty. Blended together, show like leprosy. The whiter, 
the fouler"), 98a (ague), 99b ("Pleasure of life, what is't? Only 
the good hours Of an ague"), 149b, i66a (plague), 91a. 

Agriculture: 22b (vines manured with blood); Scarecrow 
38a; 127b (the harvest-home of love), 155b (" We spread the earth 
like .... new reaped corn"); Sow and reap 38b, 42b (harvest), 

' Cf. Tourneur II 41. 
'Cf. Tourneur, I 139. 



88 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

io8a ("Virtue is ever sowing of her seeds"), 37a (pigeons and 
sparrows in harvest time), 63a (pasture). 

Trades and Practical Arts: 6b (like a gilder poisoned with 
his quicksilver), 25a ("We endure the strokes like anvils"), 
cf. 80a; Weaving 63b; Dyeing 87a (a knave ingrain); Glass 
71b; loob ("Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust, Like 
diamonds, we are cut with our own dust") ; 6ib ("You play the 
wire-drawer"), 83a (like the repairing of a clock or watch), 75b 
(" Laboring men Count the clock oftenest .... Are glad when 
their task's ended"), 31b ("Will any mercer take another's ware 
When once 'tis tous'd and sullied?"), 45b ("Now the wares are 
gone, we may shut up shop"), 65a (tradesmen and their wiles), 
io8a (exchange at dear rate), 142a ("The world and I have not 
made up our accounts yet"), io8a (voyage for a mine), 154b 
("Rome, Thou wilt pay use for what thou dost forbear"), 48b 
(pawn; bill of sale). Mine 65a, io8a. 

Ships and Sailing: 9a (shore from ship), 13a ("Should for- 
tune rend his sails and split his mast"), 37a (like ships which 
seem great upon a river, small upon the seas), 37b (mariner's 
prayers), 121a ("So sails with fore-winds stretch'd do soonest 
break"), 142a (" The Capuchin. O, you have a dangerous voyage 
to take. Romelio. No matter, I will be mine own pilot") ; 32a, 
50a, 73a, 83a ("Let us not venture all this poor remainder In 
one unlucky bottom"); 143a, 149a (steer), 167b, i68a, 176b. 

Building: 37a (Men like bricks, alike, but placed high or low 
by chance) ; 82a ("Men cease to build when the foundation 
sinks"), cf. 145b, 89a: 

" I know death hath ten thousand several doors 
For men to take their exits ; and 'tis found 
They go on such strange geometrical hinges. 
You may open them both ways." 

113b ("As black copartiments show gold more bright"), 153b, 
174b; 63b (" footsteps "= stepping stones); 47a (the body the 
palace of the soul); window 138a; 151b ("Trust my bosom To 
be the closet of your private griefs : Believe me, I am uncran- 
nied"), cf. 79a (his breast a private whispering-room); loob 
("Thou, which stood'st like a huge pyramid. Begun upon a large 



JOHN WEBSTER. 89 

and ample base, Shalt end in a little point, a kind of nothing"), 
i2ia (pyramids weakest at the top); Column io8b; Prop 158b. 

Sports, Amusements, etc.: 7 (bowling), 28b (juggling), 133a 
("he seems A giant in a May-game"), 36b ("strook His soul 
into the hazard"),' 99a ("We are merely the star's tennis- 
balls, struck and bandied Which way please them"), 120b ("the 
more spacious that the tennis-court is, The more large is the 
hazard"), 150a (sprinters who before a race wear shoes of lead) ; 
Riding 44b and 67b; Archery 20a ("I am at the mark, sir: I'll 
give aim to you. And tell you how near you shoot"), 39b ("One 
arrow's graz'd already"); Hawking, 12a, 20a, 30b, 38a, 71b, 
144b, i6ob; Fowling 27b, 37a, 122a; Hunting 31b, 136b, 
165a; Dance (of life) 169a. 

Domestic Life: 65b (as children eat sweetmeats), so 149b 
(verbatim) ; 49b ("I will be waited on in death") ; 83a ("I have 
seen my little boy oft scourge his top, And compar'd myself 
to 't ; naught made me e'er Go right but heaven's scourge- 
stick ");^ Relationship 44b (" I have heard grief named the eldest 
child of sin"), so loob, cf. 121b, 155b (twins), 86a ("Thy pity is 
nothing of kin to thee"), 152b ("our mother, Fair Rome"), so 
156a. 

Dress and Adornment : 8b (diamond and its setting), 
24a, 63a, cf. loob, 22a (counterfeit jewels), 46-47 (jewels), 79a, 
117b, 124b, 144b; 29b ("this changeable stuff"), 48b ("ere the 
spider Make a thin curtain for your epitaphs"), cf. 120a; 8ia 
("Doth she make religion her riding-hood To keep her from the 
sun and tempest?"), 94a ("Sorrow makes her look Like to an oft- 
dy'd garment"), 62b ("Your old garb of melancholy"), 117b 
("You have not apparelled your fury well ") 121a, 140b (veil), 
95b ("You shall see me wind my tongue about his heart Like a 
skein of silk") ;^ Wear 154a; Visarded 178b. 

Colloquial and Familiar Images: 8a (like images in a basin 

'Cf. Henry V,\\\ 263. 

^'See a similar simile in Sidney's Arcadia (Poems, ed. Grosart II 163) : 
" Grief only makes his wretched state to see, 
Even like a top, which nought but whipping moves." 

3Cf. Chapman, 94a. 



90 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

of water, broken by bubbles), 9a (" I will put the breese in 's 
tail"), 22a (tell lies like post-boys), 31b (landlady), 32a 
("Your little chimneys Do ever cast most smoke!"), 37b ("like 
a frighted dog with a bottle at 's tail"), 43b ("she simpers like 
the suds A collier hath been wash'd in"), 74b ("he's a 
mere stick of sugar candy"; so 115b), 77a ("You have shook 
hands with Reputation"), 163a (a little-timbered fellow), 163b 
(clerks of the kitchen), 173b ("cheese struck in years"), 173b 
("my stomach has struck twelve"). Flamineo in The White Devil 
is particularly fond of colloquial comparisons, which strangely 
intensify the sardonic irony of his villainy; e. g. 8b, 19b, and 
passim. 

Coarse and Repulsive Images: 5b (vomit), 5b (f^eabitings), 
78b (lice), 6a ("Make Italian cut-works in their guts"), 22a 
(to spit in the wind), 37a ("I did never wash my mouth with 
mine own praise"), 59b (horseleech), 97a; Rotten 97a, 153a, 17a; 
Dunghill 25b, 133a, i66a, 171a; 5a (" Fortune 's a right whore"), 
62a, 23b, 92a, i68b; Beget 158a. 

The Body and its Parts: 7b (the stars' eyes), 40b (rough- 
bearded comet), 27b (the valley bends the knee); Sleep 109b, 
cf. nob, 171b; nib (bells tongue-tied); Smother 99a, 135a; 
To swallow 153b. 

The Senses and Appetites: Food and feasting 8b, 17b, 97b, 
88b ("A many hungry guests have fed upon me"), 23a, 49b 
("You are too few to feed The famine of our vengeance"), 155a, 
149b ("To make so many bits of your delight"), 25a (relish like 
honey); 178a (odors), 6a ("Perfumes the more they are chaf'd, 
the more they render Their pleasing scents"),' so 83a; 47a ("Sins 
Thrice candied o'er"), so 62b, 115b, cf. 74b. 

Subjective Life, Religion, etc.: Heaven 64b, cf. 174b. Hell 
64b, 42b, 91a, 97b, 169b; Devil loa, 21b, 27b, 35a, 41a, 62b, 
65a, 67b, 83b, 98b, 142a, 143b, i66b, 172a, 177a, etc. ; Witch- 
craft and Conjuring 19a ("Thou art a soldier, Follow'st the 
great duke, feed'st his victories. As witches do their serviceable 
spirits, Even with thy prodigal blood"), 63b, 65a, 75a, 8ia, 121a; 
Perspective Glass 30b, 6ib; 85a (an Italian superstition); 91a 

' Similarly Bacon (cf. Dyce's note ad loc). 



JOHN WEBSTER. 9 1 

("I Stand like one, That long hath ta'en a sweet and golden 
dream"); Soul loSb; 127a ("mischiefs, Are like the visits of 
Franciscan friars — They never come to prey upon us single"); 
Oracles 6ib, 92a (heretic), 65b ("I will remain the constant sanc- 
tuary Of your good name"), cf. 172a, 30b: 

"Thou hast led me, like a heathen sacrifice, 
With music and with fatal yokes of flowers, 
To my eternal ruin." 

94a ("You are all of you like beasts of sacrifice"), 47b ("did 
make a flaming altar of my heart");' 151a ("one whose mind 
Appears more like a ceremonious chapel Full of sweet music, 
than a thronging presence"), 83a ("Your kiss is colder Than I 
have seen a holy anchorite Give to a dead man's skull"), 77a 
("be cased up, like a holy relic"), 83a ("In the eternal church, 
sir, I do hope we shall not part thus"). 

Death, the Grave, etc.: lob, 26a (" Misfortune comes, like the 
coroner's business, Huddle upon huddle"; cf. 127a), 29b (a fowl 
"coffin'd in a bak'd meat"), 35a (like the yew tree, growing on 
graves), 48b, 50b (" My life was a black charnel "), 65b, 77a, 89a, 
90b (" You have a pair of hearts are hollow graves. Rotten, and 
rotting others"), 96b, 97a, loia, 120b, 125a, 128b, 135b, 142b, 
i66a. 

War: Tilting i66a; Siege 27b ("As jealous as a town 
besieged"), 152a; 153a, 174a; 27b ("undermining more prevails 
Than doth the cannon "); Cannon 25a, 77a (thy heart is " a hol- 
low bullet, Fill'd with unquenchable wild-fire"), 8ia (to laugh 
"Like a deadly cannon That lightens ere it smokes"), 83b, 91a 
("your vengeance, Like two chain'd bullets, still goes arm in 
arm ");' Combat 170a, 63b (like men in battle under the influence 
of fear), 142b ("what is death? The safest trench i' the world 
to keep man free From fortune's gunshot"); armed 21b, 84b; 
70a ("Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best"); 
Sheathe 22a. 

The Stage and the Drama : 29a (" My tragedy must have some 
idle mirth in't. Else it will never pass"), 86b, 85b ("I account 

' Cf. Tourneur I 79. 

2 So Heywood (cf. Dyce's note); cf. Chapman 170a. 



92 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

this world a tedious theatre, For I do play a part in't 'gainst 
my will"), 90a ("as we observe in tragedies That a good 
actor many times is curs'd For playing a villain's part "), 120a (" O 
look the last act be the best i' the play, And then rest, gentle 
bones "),' 1 24b ("Are not bad plays The worse for their length ?"), 
129a, loia. 

Miscellaneous: Melt loib, 143a, 172a, 179a; Mirror 6ib, 
124b, 149a; Colors 12a (black slander), i8b, 20a, 22b, 40a, 43b, 
46b, 60a, 99a, 165b, 172b, 178b, 179a, iSoa; White 82b; Poison 
lib, 1 2a (" there's hemlock in thy breath "), 1 2b, 1 5a, i6a, 34a, 40b, 
60a, 63a, 64a, 92b, 96b, 122b, 125b, 134b, 157a, 167b, i68a (cf. 36b, 
39b, 42a); Instrument, Engine, 19a, 48a, 78a, 79b, 121a ("an 
engine [that] shall weigh up my losses. Were they sunk as low 
as hell"), 152a; Coin, Counterfeit, etc., 21a, 133a; Painted 6a 
("Leave your painted comforts "), 20b, 32a, 91a, 133a; Drown 
34a, 142b; 35b (" He sounds my depth thus with a golden plum- 
met "), 83a; Climbing 178b; 121b (" Sin and shame are ever tied 
together "); 98a (" a face folded in sorrow ") cf. 27a; 48a (" I am 
caught with a springe "); Watch 69a (like a false rusty watch); to 
Sift 107b; Weight 82a, i68a; Balance 179b. 

Tragedy is ubiquitous in Webster. In his own phrase, he 

limns night-pieces,^ and, wide as is his range of imagery, almost 

everything is hung in black. Take for instance 

ecapi u a ion ^^_^^^ section in the above list, for example " Insects," 

and observe the moral connotation of the images cited. Spiders 

are the emblems of treason 27b, or evil plots 113b, or of the 

entanglements of the law; glowworms are the type of false 

glories 36a, 88a, or false honor 133a; moths are types of destruc- 

tiveness 60a, 153b; parasites are like lice 78b; bees 

y" ,.^^ ^ are treacherous 85b, or uncertain of purpose iioa; 

Quality -^ ^ ^ . 

ants, gnats, worms, etc., are representatives of 

abjectness i68b; the silkworm's fabulous sagacity and industry is 

used to point a gross meaning 9a; flies however are nothing 

worse than emblems of smallness 114a. Such is Webster's world! 

For results similar, if somewhat less striking, would follow were 

'Cf. Jonson, II 379a. 
2 P. sob. 



JOHN WEBSTER. 93 

we to analyze the other fields from which he draws his illustra- 
tions. Among stars, meteors are most used. There are two 
tropes referring to showers, and some twelve to storms and tem- 
pests; earthquakes, hail, whirlpools and fire, appear prominently. 
Nature is not idyllic in Webster. Animal life, and especially 
birds, he seems to have observed. But mankind was his proper 
study. The various arts and the estates and occupations of life 
are laid under endless contribution. Note as characteristic the 
large number of entries under the rubric " Medical," and also 
under "Subjective Life." 



GEORGE CHAPMAN* 

i557?-i634 



Acted or Entered Published 

1595-6 1598 The Blind Beggar of Alexandria 

1597 ? 1599 ^'' Humorous Day's Mirth 

1599 ? (1603 Fleay) 1605 All Fools - . . . . 

I598?(t6oi " ) 1606 The Gentleman Usher 

1604? (Fleay) 1606 Monsieur U Olive 

1604? " 1607 Bussy U Ambois 

1606? " 16 1 3 The Revenge of Bussy U Afubois 

1608 1608 Byron's Conspiracy 

1608 1608 The Tragedy of Charles, Duke of 

Byron . . . . 243-274 

1 60 1 ? (Fleay) 161 1 May - Day - .... 275-306 

1605? " 161 2 The Widow's Tears - - 307-340 

1608? " 1631 The Tragedy of Ccesar and Ponipey ■^z^\--^'?,o 



*In the following lists, references to the five tragedies have usually been 
placed after those to the comedies, except vi^here similarity of the subject or con- 
text has brought two or more references together without regard to pagination. 



I- 


- 21 


22- 


- 45 


46- 


- 77 


78- 


112 


113- 


-139 


140- 


-177 


178- 


213 


214- 


-242 



95 



CHAPMAN. 

Great faults counterbalanced by great merits is the judg- 
ment rescued from an inappropriate application to Shakspere, and 

nowadays applied with a greater justice to Chap- 

His Great man.' Not only is this apparent in the construc- 

au s an ^.^^ ^^^ general purport of his plays, but also and 

more especially in his diction and use of imagery. 
For in these respects, while on the one hand it is true that 
" Chapman abounds in splendid enthusiasms of diction, and now 
and then dilates our imaginations with suggestions of profound 
poetic depth," ^ yet at the same time there are to be found in his 
plays striking examples of almost all the faults in matters of dic- 
tion of that most prolific period. Hyperbole of the hugest pre- 
tensions, a sort of grandiose magniloquence, which is saved from 
falling into bombast only by the intellectual passion which 
inspires it, extraordinary and fantastic conceits, labored and 
clouded similes, incoherence and obscurity of style,^ and other 
similar marks of barbarism are to be found in Chapman's work. 
The general manner of his imagery has been summed up fully 

and accurately by Mr. Swinburne:* "Few poets . . . 

enera anner ^^^^ been more unsparing in the use of illustration 
or nis Imagery i o 

than Chapman; he flings about similes by the 

handful, many of them diffuse and elaborate in expression, 

most of them curiously thoughtful and ingenious, not a few of 

them eloquent and impressive; but in many cases they tend rather 

to distract the attention of the reader than to elucidate the matter 

' By Coleridge (Miscellanies, ^Esthetic and Literary, p. 289), by Lamb 
(Specimens of Eng. Dram. Poets, p. 88), and others. 

2 Lowell, Works, I 277. 

3 "A quaint and florid obscurity, rigid with elaborate rhetoric, and tortuous 
with labyrinthine illustration" (Swinburne on Chapman, Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica, 9th ed.). 

■t Introduction to Chapman's Works, Poems and Minor Translations, p. xix. 
97 



98 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

of his study." The comedies of course differ in these respects 
from the tragedies, being much lighter and clearer in style. But 
the characteristic Chapman, the sententious and weighty Chap- 
man, is found in the tragedies. Indeed Chapman the playwright 
has three distinct styles : (i) What maybe termed his High Trag- 
edy Style, an exceedingly undramatic style, in 

IS ree which there is a noticeable straining after the epic 

Styles ° ^ 

manner. The speeches are long and often rhetor- 
ical, description and narration are frequently used,' the style is 
exalted, and there are many prolonged or so-called Homeric 
similes, — though of course Chapman can never let himself down 
to the quiet pitch and simple manner of the genuinely Homeric 
simile. (2) His Comedy Style. Here the movement is more 
dramatic and more colloquial, and the metaphors and similes 
are shorter and less prominent. (3) Finally, admitting 
Alphonsus and Revenge for Honor into the list of his works, we 
should have to distinguish his Later Tragedy Style, in which 
few of the characteristics observable in his High Tragedy Style 
appear. There is little metaphor and simile, the syntax is less 
involved, and the diction generally is much less abstract and 
obscure. 

The difficulty and obscurity of Chapman's style is not helped 
by the manner of his figurative language. Chapman's imagery 
in some respects is the very opposite of Webster's. Chapman is 
abstract and often vague,* Webster is concrete, vivid, and intense; 
Chapman is inclined to amplification,^ Webster to contraction; 
Chapman is epical, Webster dramatic; both however are highly 
literary and self-conscious in their methods of workmanship, and 

' See for a striking example the Description of the Duel in Act II, Sc. i of 
Bussy D'Ambois (pp. 147-148). 

= " Often we feel his meaning, rather than apprehend it. The imager)' 
has the indefiniteness of distant objects seen by moonlight" (Whipple, Lit. of 
Age of Eliz., p. 151). 

3 Some of the more striking prolonged similes are to be found at pp. 48b, 
53b, 122b, 126, 140a, 140b, 148a, 150a, 162, 171b, 172a, 175, 176, 185, 189a, 
198b, 202a, 204a, 207b, 212b, 219b, 226, 227a, 231a, 239b, 262b, 270a, 3S2a, 
354a, 359b. Prolonged metaphorical passages: pp. 47, 87, 142, 154, 162, 169, 
272, 274, 293, 323, 325. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 99 

both are sententious' and moral in temperament and in the fun- 
damental predilection of their genius. 

Chapman's method in tragedy was epical and highly lit- 
erary. His tragedies accordingly are full of classical and liter- 
ary allusions and of historical parallels and exam- 
Classical and igg Homer = naturally supplies a large part of 
Literary Orna- , ,.,,,. , , , , o r 

ment in Chap- ^^^^ classical allusion, although by no means all. ^ 
man Indeed Chapman is full of literary echoes, which 

may be considered a note of his style. Even the 
comedies contain many classical and literary allusions, including 
various parodies and quotations.'' In respect to the manner of 
his classical allusions Chapman has entirely escaped from the 
facile and superficial mythology of Greene and Peele. His clas- 
sicisms are not excessive, although occasionally from the dramatic 
point of view Chapman is somewhat pedantic in his allusions. 
But within the limits of his peculiar vein of narrative and gnomic 
tragic writing, they are often used with force and occasionally 
with veiled and subtle effect. Tamyra's appeal to Montsurry,^ 
for example, is aptly enforced by the classical image employed : 
" Oh, kill me, kill me ; 

Dear husband, be not crueller than death ; 

You have beheld some Gorgon ; feel, oh feel 

How you are turned to stone." 
Quite in Chapman's more violent vein, again, but not so 
obvious, is the allusion in Tamyra's earlier speech : 

' "He Is the most sententious of our poets." (Lowell, Old Eng. Dram., p. 
91) : This appears not only in his great wealth of gnomic verses, but also in his 
fondness for sententious figures. His similes often have a moralizing turn ; he 
is fond of fable (e. g. 48b, 146, 185b, 189a, 235b)-, and proverbs and similar 
figures are not infrequent (e.g. 72a: "extreme diseases Ask extreme reme- 
dies;" i6ia to swim against the stream, cf. 244a; i88b " Great vessels into less 
are emptied never;" 197b " Labor with iron flails, to thresh down feathers, Flit- 
ting in air;" 259b "This nail is driven already past the head; cf 265a, etc.). 

^See the references to Homer, 4a, 190a, 196a, 204a, etc. 

3 For example note 140b (Pindar's "dream of a shadow"), i88a (quotation 
from the A7itigone of Sophocles), 203a ("this Senecal man "), 8ob (Plautus), etc. 

■*E. g. 20b (from Marlowe), 22b ("like an old king in an old-fashion play"), 
133a (Parody on Spenser's Shep. CaL), and the (so far as I know) unidentified 
parodies pp. Sob, 281b, 296a. 

^ Bussy ifAmbois, V i (p. 170b) ; cf Greene, 236a. 



lOO METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

"Come, bring me to him ;' I will tell the serpent 
Even to his venom'd teeth, from whose cursed seed 
A pitch'd field starts up 'twixt my lord and me. 
That his throat lies."^ 

The strange and bizarre predominate in Chapman's imagery. 

At times it is even the grotesque. In reading his plays we are 

repeatedly confronted with the most extraordinary 
Excesses of his ^. ' i,- u u ^.u • 

conceptions, which by their very extravagance rise 

above the level of mere conceits. Passion of a 

certain high sort, as well as imagination, is present in his 

tragedies, but it is a passion that cannot abstain from violence at 

every crisis. The jealous Montsurry^ cries out, 

" I know not how I tare ; a sudden night 
Flows through my entrails, and a headlong chaos 
Murmurs within me, which I must digest." 

The following is from Bussy's dying speech :'' 

'Act IV, Sc. i (p. 165a). 

= Other striking classical allusions are as follows : The Trojan War, etc., 
55a, 58b ("to play Menelaus "), 147b, i6ib (to "quarrel with sheep and run as 
mad as Ajax "), 223a, 244a, 285a, etc. ; Hero and Leander 5b ; to throw in a ball 
of debate 62b, 217a, 223a; Various Gods 12a, 64b, 157a, etc.; Alcides or Her- 
cules 137a, 281b, 320b, 334b, 176a, 190b, 2i8b ("like the shaft Shot at the sun 
by angry Hercules "), 224b, 251a, 49b ("like the dragon to the Hesperian 
fruit"); 69b ("sing to me no more, syren"'), 95b, 169b, 285a, (cf. 243b, 244a); 
Medea nob, 201a; Semele 218b; Cyclops 229a ; Helicon 292a, 330a, cf. 224b ; 
Actseon and Diana 313a; Gordian knot 292a, 165b; Hermean rod 157a; 
Lernean fen 162a; Augean stable 165a; .-Etna 83a, 157b, 208a; Pandora's 
box i66a; Occasion and her forelock 123a, 293a; The Wheel of Fortune 142a, 
152a. Four or five lines finally may be quoted as an example of Chapman's more 
poetical manner (p. 175a) : 

" Haste thee where the grey-eyed morn perfumes 
Her rosy chariot with Sabtean spices, 
Fly, where the evening from th' Iberian vales 
Takes on her swarthy shoulders Hecate, 
Crown'd with a grove of oaks." 

Historical allusion is very frequent in Chapman. A few examples are: 
1 88a (Brutus and Ca;sar), 196b (Pompey), 218a (Catiline), 189a ("Domitian- 
like"), 229a (Curtius), 266b (Manlius), 258 (Alexander and his civilizing 
mission). 

^ Bussy UAmbois, IV i (p. 164b). 

4ld. Vi(p. 175b). 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. lOl 

" My sun is turn'd to blood, in whose red beams 
Pindus and Ossa hid in drifts of snow, 
Laid on my heart and liver, from their veins 
Melt like two hungry torrents, eating rocks 
Into the ocean of all human life. 
And make it bitter, only with my blood." 

This is typical, not exceptional.' 

The early and distinctly Chapmanesque tragedies are crowded 
with metaphor and simile. Scarcely a sentence but contains a 
trope, faded, concealed, or emphatic.^ Everything 
His Profuse jg ^|- |-j^g farthest degree from the common, the 
se rope ^g^g^^ -pj-jg vocabulary is full of strange latinized 
forms, such as prefract (257a), decretal (273b), novation (193a), 
inclamation (195b), aversation (196a), everted (68a), and the like. 
He is fond of inversions, — " Her men ashore go, for their several 
ends." (212b); 

" Since he can 
As good cards show for it as Ctesar did ; " etc. 

He is profuse in illustration, sometimes giving way to a perfect 
riot of similes and metaphors, as in the interview between Baligny 
and Clermont in the Revenge of Biissy U Ainbois Act H (p. 189). 
In the same way he is fond of heaping up simile after simile, 
alternative or cumulative, as in the description of the duel already 
referred to, or in Henry's invective against La Fin in Act III of 
Byron! s Conspiracy. 

Chapman in his tragedies is almost as abundant in hyperbole 3 

as Marlowe in Tamburlaine. Different as they are in essential 

characteristics, Chapman sometimes strangely 

„ , recalls Marlowe. Each sympathizes in much the 

Marlowe ■' ^ 

same way with the Titanic spirit, the lust of power, 

and a sort of hyperbolical pride of soul. The passion of Chap- 

' Note for further example, the accumulation of violent images in the long 
speeches in which Monsieur and Bussy exchange compliments, Act III near 
end (pp. 161-162) and see the hyperboles cited below. 

"It is possible to include only the more striking and significant examples 
in the lists that follow. 

3The chief examples are i8a, 109b, isoa, 158b, 162a, 163, i66a, 169a 
175b, 176a, 198b, 215b, 217, 229a, 232b, 235b, ("He may drink earthquakes 
and devour the thunder"), 270b, 368a. 



I02 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

man, however, is less naive and is more turbulent and turgid 
than that of Marlowe. It is evident that Chapman in his tragedies, 
like Marlowe in Tamburlaine, is writing in a special vein 
in conformity to artistic canons of his own. Consequently it is 
highly uncritical to judge his tragedies simply as tragedies. What 
their merits are it is more difficult to state than it is to detail in 
order their defects in style and imagery. Mr. Swinburne has more 
nearly done justice to them than any other critic. The critics, 
however, from Dryden to Edmund Gosse, have 

^„^, ^. been curiously contradictory in considering the 
of Bombast in j j <=• 

Chapman question of Chapman's bombast and fustian. Mr. 

Gosse ' dismisses Chapman's tragedies with the 
remark that they are "plays that seem bombastic, loose, and inco- 
herent to the last extreme;" and Chapman's bombast seems to 
be one of the fixed traditions of criticism. Dryden^ condemned it, 
and various later critics, Hazlitt,^ Warton,* and Ulrici,^ for example, 
have animadverted upon it. Professor Ward, however, in his 
History of English Dramatic Literature,^ has bestowed high praise 
upon Chapman's imagery, and Lowell ' prefers to speak of " an 
incomparable amplitude in his style." ^ Perhaps E. P. Whipple's 
defense is the most to the point of any that can be offered : " Pope' 

'Jacobean Poets, p. 40. 

^ Dedication to the Spanish Friar, Works VI 404 (apropos of Bussy 
U Amhois). 

3 Lit. Age of Eliz., Lect. Ill ("he often runs into bombast and turgidity — 
is extravagant and pedantic at one and the same time "). 

* Hist. Eng. Poetry, IV 318 ("His fire is too frequently darkened by that 
sort of fustian which now disfigured the diction of our tragedy"). See also 
Hallam, Lit. Eur., pt. Ill, ch. vi § 103 ; Campbell's Specimens, p. 130; etc. 

5Shaks. Dram. Art., Bk. Ill, ch. ii ("empty pomposity and rhetorical 
pathos"). 

*Vol. II, pp. 10, 14-15, 19, 21, 35. 

' Old Eng. Dram., p. 92. 

^See also the Retrospective Revieiv, IV 337 : "In no author have we richer 
contemplations upon the nature of man and the world, where tlie shrewdness 
of the remark is ennobled and enforced by the splendor of itna^ery and the 
earnestness of passion.''' 

9 Sic Read Dryden. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 103 

speaks of it \^Bussy D'Ambois] as full of fustian ; but fustian is 
rant in the words when there is no corresponding rant in 
the soul, whilst Chapman's tragedy, like Marlowe's Tambur- 
laine, indicates a greater swell in the thoughts and pas- 
sions of his characters than in their expression."' In short, 
Chapman's passion is real, however confused, perplexed, and 
turgid in expression ; Bussy D' Ambois and Byron are very stren- 
uous figures, and that hyperbole and extravagance abound so 
much in their speech, granting the conception of the type of 
character and the peculiar species of poem, is not so unnatural 
or improbable. 

Another fault in Chapman is one allied to his predilection 

for the bizarre and grotesque heretofore adverted to. This is his 

fondness for puerile quibbling,^ and for fantastic 

, ^ ., conceits. 3 Excuse for the quibblinsr doubtless is 
and Conceits ^ *= 

found in the fact that most of it occurs as part of the 

comic "business" of the comedies ; the conceits, not infrequently 
entangled with his hyperboles, are too often unmeasured, and, as 
Professor Ward says,"* recall the conceits of Cowley and the Fan- 
tastic School. He is especially fond of that not ungraceful form 
of conceit in which the sense is, as it were, turned in upon itself, 
leaving the metaphorical emphasis upon pronoun, 

^ , ,. preposition or adverb ; as in the following exam- 

Introspective ^ ^ ° 

Conceit P^^^ " 49^ ("does he think to rob me of myself?"); 

51a ("Up to the heart in love"), 130b (" You know 
the use of honor, that will ever Retire into itself"), 144a ("Never 
were men so weary of their skins, And apt to leap out of them- 
selves as they"), 311a ("he is not base that fights as high as your 
lips"), 328b ("She hath exiled her eyes from sleep"). Another 

'Lit. of Age of Eliz., p. 153. 

*See examples of quibbles and plays on words : pp. 4b, 5b, 22b, 24a, 24b,. 
57b, 63b, 78b, 80a, Ii8a, 127a, 129a, 135a, 142a, 156a, 20ia, 217, 219a, 231a, 
254b, 275, 286b, 287b, 289, 292a, 301b, 315b, 319b, 320a. 

3 Examples of conceits : 40, 47 (the opening scene of All Fools — a delight- 
ful passage in the right Elizabethan vein), 50, 133b, 158b, 165, 175, 177, 207a, 
223, 239, 255, 284, 291a, 300, 317, 321, etc. See also the examples of Hyper- 
boles cited above, p. I28w. 

■tHist. Eng. Dram. Lit., II 10. 



I04 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

pretty conceit is somewhat similar : " Her blood went and came 
of errands betwixt her face and her heart" (317a). 

Chapman's epithets are often ingenious, sometimes poetical 
and noble. Perhaps compound epithets do not occur as often 
as might be expected in view of his practice in the 
EoiOiets translation of Homer. A few examples however 

may be cited: 127b ("stiff-hammed Audacity"). 
148a ("the fear-cold earth"), 167a ("black-faced tragedy"), 172b 
("music-footed horse"), 175a ("the gray-eyed morn");' 194b 
("foggy-spirited men"), 249b ("squint-eyed envy"), 266a ("the 
round-eyed ocean "). Noteworthy single epithets are : 2a ("top- 
less honors" — a favorite epithet with Marlowe, also), 141b ("lean 
darkness"), 141a ("the waves of glassy glory"), 190b ("the insult- 
ing pillars of Alcides"), i8ob ("her rosy eyes"), 184b ("steel 
footsteps"), 215a ("wealthy Autumn"), 353a ("an aspen soul"). 

Formal personification is a distinctive mark of Chapman's 

style in tragedy. Many of his personifications are of classical 

descent, and many are pure abstraction. The fig- 
Personification J. „ , ,, ,.,.,. 
. p, ure of I'ortune,* usually represented with wings,^ is 

a favorite with him. Chapman, like Spenser, loves 

to elaborate his personifications. Note for example the long 

description of Envy at the beginning of the second act of 

Bussy D'Ambois,'' the conception of which is quite in Spenser's 

manner. 

In general Chapman is characterized by abundant and highly 
conscious and literary use of metaphor and simile. He loves to 
amplify and pursue his tropes. This tendency, however, does 
not prevent frequent obscurity in the illustration, due to his theory 

' Cf. Romeo ajtd Juliet, II iii i, etc. 

'E.g. 142a, 172a, 198a, 224a, 225a, 245a, 308a, 355b, 363b, etc. Other 
personifications are: of Death 96b, 115a, 162a; Envy 146b, Religion 205a, 
Despair 215a, Truth 262a; Occasion 293a, 123a; see also 148a, 172b, 175a, 
208a, 209a, 229a, 245a, 249b, 268a, 270a, etc. 

3 " The rude Sc3'thians painted blind 
Fortune's powerful hands with wings 
To show her gifts come swift and suddenly, 
Which if her favorite be not swift to take, 
He loses them forever." (142a.) 

^ Pp. I46b-i47a. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 1 05 

of Style' in part, and partly also to the naturally involved 
and abstract character of his genius. Hardly any writer has a 
manner so personal to himself and so unmistakable as Chapman 
in his original tragedy style. His range is very wide and mis- 
cellaneous but he is also remarkable for a certain stock of favor- 
ite illustrations and metaphors which are repeated from play to 
play, often with only slight variations, as will 
Poetical appear in numerous instances in the following 

and Vigorous classification of his imagery." His comparisons. 
Images 

however, are mostly his own, and are free from 

conventionality. Occasionally there is a purely poetical touch, 

as for example (p. 164a): 

" Here's nought but whispering with us ; Ifke a calm 
Before a tempest, when the silent air 
Lays her soft ear close to the earth to hearken 
For that she fears steals on to ravish her." 

'Mr. Swinburne (Chapman's Minor Poems, Introd. p. 1.) notes his "quaint 
fondness for remote and eccentric illustration." What Chapman's own theory 
in the matter was may be inferred from one of his own similes (185a): 

" As worthiest poets 
Shun common atid plebeian forms of speech. 
Every illiberal and affected phrase 
To clothe their matter, and together tie 
Matter and form, with art and decency; 
So worthiest women should shun vulgar guises." 

See also Chapman's Dedication to his poem entitled "Ovid's banquet of 
Sense" (Minor Poems, p. 21.). 

^See, for example, 141b (troubled stream, clear fount), so i88a and 247a; 
162a and 185a verbatim ; i66a and 364a verbatim ; 62b (black ball of debate), 
217a ( balls of dissension); and many others. There are many words and phrases, 
whether used metaphorically or literally, which occur so often, or in such 
characteristic collocations that it is almost safe to set them down as hallmarks 
of Chapman's diction. Most of them, of course, can be paralleled from other 
Elizabethan dramatists, but the presence of many of them together would, with 
other things, be strong corroborative evidence of Chapman's handiwork. Such 
are Finger (God's finger, Nature's finger, etc.); spiced; Drown; Smother; To 
eat one's heart ; Prop ; To cut a thread ; To sound a depth ; the idea of weight 
superimposed ; Shoulders bearing a burden (like Atlas), etc.; Branch ; the meta- 
phor of wings, flying, etc. (noted by Mr. Lowell as a favorite image of Spenser's 
also; cf. Works IV 307n); veins boiling or swelling with poison, etc.; quench; 
whet ; puffed up ; blown up ; swollen, etc.; infect and taint ; shadow ; manned 
(e- g- 59a, 127a, etc.); engender and beget; entrails; chaos; colors (especially 



lo6 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

There are also many strong and idiomatic metaphors, brief, 
compact, and vivid : 

"I'll be hewn from hence 
Before I leave you" (97a); 

"Thou eafst thy heart in vinegar'''' (i6ib); 

"I'll soothe his plots; and straw my hate with smiles'' (i68a); 

"Let thy words be born as naked as thy thoughts" (182a); 

"as if a fierce and fire-given cannon 
Had spit his iron vomit out amongst them"(i98b) ; 

"I would your dagger's point had kissed my heart" (256a); 

" I . . . . will not have 
Mine ear blown into flames with hearing it." (268b) 

Finally I may be permitted to quote a somewhat longer, but 
very noble passage, which will give a more adequate idea of 
Chapman's thought, style and imagery at his best. It is part of 
Byron's speech when being led to execution : 

"let me alone in peace, 

And leave my soul to me, whom it concerns ; 

You have no charge of it ; I feel \\tr free; 

How she doth rouse, and like a falcon stretch 

Her silver wings, as threatening death with death ; 

At whom I joyfully will cast her off. 

I know this body but a sink of folly. 

The ground-work and raised frame of woe and frailty : 

The bond and bundle of corruption ; 

A quick corse, only sensible of grief, 

A walking sepulchre, or household thief; 

A glass of air, broken with less than breath, 

A slave bound face to face to death, till death. 

And what said all you more ? I know, besides 

That life is but a dark and stormy night. 

Of senseless dreams, terrors and broken sleeps ; 

A tyranny, devising pains to plague 

And make man long in dying, racks his death : 

And death is nothing : what can you say more ? 

I, being a long globe, and a little earth, 

black) used in moral sense ; gall ; to stoop ; cement ; etc.; and swindge, fautor, 
noblesse, treacher, and other similar words common in the poetic diction of 
the early years of Elizabeth. See the references that follow in the analysis 
of Chapman's imagery. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 107 

Am seated like earth, betwixt both the heavens, 
That if I rise, to heaven I rise, if fall, 
I likewise fall to heaven ; what stronger faith 
Hath any of your souls ?" 

RANGE AND SOURCES OF IMAGERY. 

Mr. Lowell writes in his Old English Dramatists : "Sometimes 
we njay draw a pretty infallible inference as to a man's tempera- 
ment, though not as to his character, from his writings. And 
this, I think, is the case with Chapman ' . . . Chapman has some 
marked peculiarities of thought and style which are unmistak- 
able."" The following analysis of Chapman's imagery will 
perhaps contribute to the more definite understanding of the 
predilections of his temperament and the scope of his mind. 

Chapman's range of imagery is very wide, and his manner 
very loud and characteristic. 

NATURE: Mr. Swinburne' has noted the "close and intense 
observation of nature ... at all times distinctive of this poet." 
Inanimate nature, and especially the various aspects of the 
heavens, the atmosphere, the weather, and the like, are constantly 
referred to. 

Aspects of the Sky. The Sun : 2a (Cleanthes the sun of 
Egypt), cf. 151b, 48b ("Love is Nature's second sun," etc., 14 
11.), 141a (men great in state like motes in the sun), cf. 154b, 
263a (the sun of royalty); Phoebus, etc., 4a, 4b, 275a ; 219b (to be 
like the air, dispersing sunlight), 65a, 121a ("joy, sun-like, out of 
a black cloud shineth "), 332b, 352a, 354a (examples of the rising 
sun); 332b (knowledge like sunbeams), 191b (false friendship like 
the sun in mists), 229a (a spirit shines as sun in clouds); 251b ; 
Shadow iioa, 179b, 191b, 216b, 244b, 327b, 239a; 239b (like the 
air), 376a (the poles of heaven). 

Stars : 1 2a (like moon and stars reflected in water), 56b (" the 
sight of such a blazing star as you"), 147b (" like a pointed 
comet"), cf. 169b, 175b, 207a; 2ioa, 215a (like a star from the 
sea), 319a, 152b (primum mobile), 260b (like an exhalation that 
would be a star), i88a. 

'P. 82. 'P. 88. 

3 Introd. to Chapman's Minor Poems and Trans., p. Ivi. 



lo8 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Moon (cf. Tides): 227a (simile of the moon, stars and winds, 
14 11.); 162b ("the tender moonshine of their beauties"), 238a. 

Eclipse : 68b, 173b, 227a, 244b, 255b. Light : 165b (shine), 
i88b, 229a, 255b. Fire: 4a ("eyes Sparkle with love-fire"), 
cf. 4b, 9b, 42b, 47a, 68b, 99a, 119b, i2ob, 284b, 310a, 317b, 
336a, 151b, 164b; 56b (fire of anger), cf. ii6a, 134b, i88a, 210a, 
370b; 141a, 191b, 205b, 207a, 239b, 244a; 126b, 147a (like 
bonfires), 147b (like a laurel in fire, like lighted paper, like flame 
and powder), 169b (like fires in cities), 268b (" I know what it 
imports, and will not have Mine ear blown into flames with hearing 
it"), 175b ("like a beacon fire"), 177 (love, like a burning 
taper); 208a (" treason ever sparkled in his eyes ") cf. 194b (sparks 
in eyes), 199a, 151b, 254a (furnace of wrath) cf. 169a; 209a 
(" Melting like snow within me, with cold fire "); 140b (" Man is 
a torch, borne in the wind"). To Quench: 52a, 56b, 191b, 
266b, 269b, 380a ; As oil quenches fire 56b, 323b. Sulphur and 
vapor (fumes) 148a, 224a, 232b, 369b, 376b. 

Clouds: cloudy looks 67b, 79a, 137b; 216b, 325a, cf. 150a 
(" I see there's change of weather in your looks"), 162b ; 204b 
(clouds of trouble), 226a (clouds of foes), 246b ; 122b 

" our great men, 
Like to a mass of clouds that now seem like 
An elephant, and straightways like an ox, 
And then a mouse."' 

194b (" foggy-spirited men "); 252a (" like a cloud That makes a 
shew as it did hawk at kingdoms," etc.); 245b, 267b (type of 
instability), 369b; 154b (" Our bodies are but thick clouds to our 
souls "); 251a. 

Storms, Showers, etc.: 55a ("Till your black anger's storm 
be over-blown"), 148a ("Storm-like he fell"), 163b (Stormy 
laws), 164a (like a calm before a tempest), 198b ; Tempest 135a, 
so 292a ; 47a (showers of tears), 22b (to rain humors), 238b ; 
39a (rainbow), cf. 191b; i8a (weather), cf. i68b ; Winds 162a, 
171b, 232a (like dust before a whirlwind), 251b (as the sun stills the 
winds), 323a; Thunder and Lightning, 17b ("some monstrous 
fate Shall fall like thunder"), 67b, 141a, 154a (sin is "Like to the 

' Cf. 154a; cf. Hamlet, III ii 366; Ant. and Cleop., IV xiv 2; Lucretius. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 1 09 

horror of a winter's thunder"); 20b (" As suddenly as lightning, 
beauty wounds"), 155b ("A prince's love is like the lightning's 
fume"), i66a, i68b ("A politician must like lightning melt The 
very marrow and not taint the skin "), 171a, 198b, 205a, 210a. 

Time, Seasons, etc.: Morning 5b (" the morning of my love"), 
175a (" the grey-eyed morn "); 22a: 

" Yet hath the morning sprinkled through the clouds 
But half her tincture, and the soil of night 
Sticks still upon the bosom of the air." 

164b (night); 323b (" Make the noontide of her years the sunset 
of her pleasures"); Spring 48b; Summer 12b, 91a; 275b ("this 
January," i. e., this old man); 274a (the seasons return but man 
never); 270b (" life is but a dark and stormy night "); Various : 
225b (like an echo); Chaos 164b, 245b ; Microcosm 6ia (" The 
fair Gratiana, beauty's little world"), 99b, loob, cf. 170a, 171a, 
144a. 

Aspects of Water, the Sea, etc.: Tides 145b, i88a ("He is 
as true as tides" . . .); Sea 63b (women crossed, tempestuous 
as the sea), 115b (sea of woes), 122b ("our State's rough 
sea"), 141a (a king's deeds "inimitable, like the sea That shuts 
still as it opens" . . .), 150a, 159b ("the unsounded sea of 
women's bloods"), 172a, 209b ("as a rock opposed To all the 
billows of the churlish sea ;" so 225a), 217b (as the ocean swallows 
the rivers), 234a, 235a, 259a; Streams 126a (" the affections of the 
mind drawn forth In many currents "), 141b (" Leave the troubled 
streams, And live ... at the well-head"), so i88a, 247a; 226a 
(like a flood), 227b ("wind about them like a subtle river," etc.), 
230b, 239b (false friends like shallow streams reflecting the 
skies, etc.), 255b, 272b. Flow 67b ("all this plot . . . Flow'd 
from this fount"), 297a (current), 228a ("All honors flow to me, 
in you their ocean "), 149b, 239a; 226b (vessels of water); 12a, 
215a, 171a (bubble). 

Aspects of the Earth: The globe 271a ("seated like earth, 
betwixt both the heavens"); bog 229a, cf. 31b; 169b ("The 
errant wilderness of a woman's face "), 219b (like hills piercing 
above the clouds), 236a (falling great men, like undereaten prom- 
ontories ; cf. 270b "this declining prominent"), 272b (valleys 



TIO METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

and mountains, lo 11.); Dust-like 197a; 68a ("the crater of my 
heart"); Earthquakes 150a, 163b, cf. 235b. 

Inorganic Nature : Metals 324a, 196b; 141b ("thy mettle 
could let sloth Rust . . . it"), 141b ("like burnished steel, 
After long use he shined "), 362a (steel toils), loa (" brazen fore- 
head "); 83b (leaden steps), 223a (leaden rumor); 104b (copper); 
Golden 356b ("golden speech ... to gild A copper soul in 
him"), 9a (hair like gold), so 13a, 6ia ("My dearest mine of 
gold "), 322a (" if she be gold she may abide the test "): To gild 
135b ; Silver 12a (silver wrists), 87b (silver song); 223a ("harder 
than Egyptian marble"); Glass 220a (brittle as glass), cf. 251b, 
141a ("The waves Of glassy Glory"); Cement 212b, 245b, 251b ; 
Loadstone 67a, cf. 50a (riches a lodestar). 

The Vegetable World: Trees 171b, 229b; 174a ("Man is 
a tree," etc.), 232a (fall of great men like that of topheavy trees 
before a wind),' 140a ("As cedars beaten with continual storms, 
So great men flourish"), 267a ("like a cedar on Mount Lebanon, 
I grew, and made my judges show like box-trees"), 276b ("tall 
and high, like a cedar"), 163b ("so much beneath you, like a box 
tree"), 148a (like the fall of an oak in Arden), 281a ("hollow and 
bald like a blasted oak"), 147b (" D 'Ambois, that like a laurel 
put in fire Sparkled and spit"), 154a (aspen leaf), 353a ("an aspen 
soul"): Branch 14 (i. e. a child), sib, 249b, 244b ("Cut from thy 
tree .... all traitorous branches"), 315b; 230b ("plants That 
spring the more for cutting"), 251a (like the blackthorn that puts 
forth leaf in midst of storms) ; Mushroom 155a; Fruit i6ia, 187a, 
202b, 2i6b, 229b, 254b; cf. 158b, 159a (windfalls). Nipped in 
the blossom 47a, i8a (like wind-bitten flowers), 245b ("frost-bit in 
the flower"), 109b, 150b, 321a; Roots 230a, 234b, cf. to root up 
217b, 219a; to take root 282a, 323a; Sap 309b; Withered nob. 
Ripe 145a ("a courtier rotten before he be ripe"). 

The Animal World: Paws 59a; 210b ("Like to a savage 
vermin in a trap"), 200a, 230b. 

Fish : 62b ("A man may grope and tickle 'em like a trout"), 
84a (gudgeons), 62a, 90a, 133a. 

Reptiles: 328a ("What action doth his tongue glide over, 

'Cf. Webster, 39a. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. m 

but it leaves a slime upon 't?"), 352a (Hatterers and parasites 
thrust up like toads and water-snakes in a pool "against great 
rains"); Serpents 14b, i6oa, 165a, 169b, 265b, 290a (gentle as 
a toothless adder), 310a, 26a, 70a ("her serpent noddle," cf. 
213b); 287a (Like the sting of a scorpion): 128a (a courtier= 
like a cameleon) ; 200b (toads). 

Insects: 59a ("I '11 smoke the buzzing hornets from their 
nests"), cf. 278a; 2 1 6b ("my court, A hive for drones"), so 217b ; 
364b (as bees gather sweets), 336a, 24a (stinging wit) ; 41a (blind as 
a beetle), cf. 67a, 78a ("as brittle as a beetle"); 204a ("Time's old 
moth"); 162a (caterpillars); 109b ("glut the mad worm of his wild 
desires"); i88b (as spiders spin their webs), 330a, 27a (cobwebs), 
so 154b. 

Birds: 27b, cf. 45b, 318a, 262b (Byron struggles like an 
imprisoned bird); Flying, Wings, etc. ib, 100a ("her winged 
spirit Is feathered . . . with heavenly words"), 154a, 174a, iS4b, 
190b, 209a ("The black, soft-footed hour is now on wing"), 
209b, 243a, 257b, 268a, 318a ("a flight beyond your wing"), 
365b, 371b; Feather 144b, 197b, 337a; note that Fortune, 
Revenge, etc., are generally personified as winged in Chapman. 
Eagle 2a, 58a ("puts on eagle's eyes"), 67a, 121b (type of roy- 
alty). 155b, 164a, 192b, 207b; 155b ("flatterers are kites 
That check at sparrows"); 146b, 285a (buzzard) ; 319b (widgeon) ; 
i6ib (screech owl), 232b; Turtle-dove 47a ("One like the Turtle 
all in mournful strains. Wailing his fortune"), nob, 285a; 158b 
(peacock) ; i6ia (cuckoo), 228b; 22b, (pigeons) ; 65b (Like a jack- 
daw), 129b (dandies like goldfinches), 133a ("a hammer of the 
right feather"); 47a (like the lark), 156a; 210b ("He will lie like 
a lapwing, when she flies Far from her sought nest, still 'here 
'tis', she cries"), cf. 248a; 332b (the cock); 311b (goose). 

Wild Animals : Lion 105a, 189a (as chained lions grow 
servile, so nobles in peace), 192b, 220a, 230a, 256b, 359b (Simile 
of the hunted lion, 15 11.); 145b (" Here's the lion, scared with the 
throat of a dunghill cock"); 146a (the ass in the lion's skin); 
Tiger 159b, i6ia(" dares as much as a wild horse or tiger"), 
176b ("to the open deserts. Like to hunted tigers, I will fly"), 
2oia; 270a (Simile of the hunted boar, 7 11.), 320b; 318a ("he 



1 1 2 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

has not licked his whelp into full shape yet "), cf. 105a (" Sweet 
whelps"); Wolf 48a, i6ia, 231a; 158b (porcupine); Fox 48b; 
Ape 23a, 54b, 71b, 59a (baboon), 144b, 92a, looa. 

Domestic Animals — Horsemanship : 7 ib (" I have unhorsed 
them "), 30b (" overthrown both horse and foot "), 80b (" brave 
prancing words," etc.), cf. 233b, 339a (to bestride the back of 
authority); Curb 206a; Spur 206a, 221b, 233b; To trot after 277a. 
Horses 322a (prolonged metaphor of the unruly colt), 231a 
("The stallion power hath such a besom tail That it sweeps all 
from justice"), 236b (like a lusty courser broken loose, 10 11.), 
256a, 256b; 336b ("that jade falsehood is never sound of all. 
But halts of one leg still"); Ass 146a, i6oa, 308a, 313b; Cattle 
64b (" Is the bull run mad ?"), 189b ("Slain bodies are no more 
than oxen slain"); 273a ("such exemplar}' and formal sheep"); 
224a (Elephant dislikes white); 262b ("And like the camel 
stoops to take the load. So still he walks"); 146b (" if I thought 
these perfumed musk-cats . . . durst but once mew at us "), 292b 
("Was there ever such a blue kitling ?"). Dogs 3b (puppies), 
48a (women are "Like hounds, most kind, being beaten and 
abused"), 278a (like a dog in a furmety-pot), 279b ("be thrust 
into the kennel," i. e., be put upon), 327b ("the barking of 
appetite"), i68a (kennel), cf. 255a, 199b ("Some informer. 
Bloodhound to mischief"). 

Fabulous Natural History: Adamant 11 6a, 321b, 158b 
(heart "hooped with adamant");' Laurel i68b ("The stony birth 
of clouds will touch no laurel "); 239b (" Stygian water [is] . . . 
to be contained But in the tough hoof of a patient ass "); Phoenix 
33b; Cockatrice 65a ("Is this the cockatrice that kills with 
sight?"), 185a, 301b; Basilisk 169b; Crocodile 132b (" Honor 
is like ... a crocodile ... it flies them that follow it and fol- 
lows them that fly it "); Halcyon 244b (" like the halcyon's birth, 
Be thine to bring a calm upon the shore"); Fire-drake 365a 
("So have I seen a fire-drake glide at midnight Before a dying 
man to point his grave "); Unicorn 148a. 

MAN AND HUMAN LIFE. The Arts and Learning : 79b ("He 
is a parcel of unconstrued stuff"), 131b (the Court Accidence), 

' Cf. Webster, 96a. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 113 

163a (high forms in the school of modesty), 127b ("stand aloof, 
like a scholar"), 129b ("I should plod afore 'em in plain stuff, 
like a writing-school master before his boys when they go a-feast- 
ing "), 141b (" like dame schoolmistresses "); 304a (a truant in the 
school of friendship); 79b ('"a map of baseness"), cf. ii8a; 103a 
(glosses ; decipher), 113b (prints), cf. 164b, 278a, 127a (" He that 
fills a whole page in folio with his style "), 315a (written in lines 
of fame), 318b (imprinted), 145a ("some knight of the new 
edition "), 167b (volume), 170b (I'll write in wounds — my wrongs 
fit characters"), 217b ("those strange characters writ in his 
face"); 236b (the stars " are divine books to us "), 240a ("He hath 
talked a volume greater than the Turk's Alcoran "), 262b (" in 
his looks He comments all, and prints a world of books "); 224b 
(hieroglyphic), so 236a ; 185a ("as poets Shun plebeian forms of 
speech"), 189a (simile of the foolish poet), 204a (like j^edantic 
critics of Homer), 231a (" as a glorious poem," etc., 15 11. j, 234b 
("as a cunning orator," etc., 7 11.), 142b (rhetoric); Gloss 215b, 
265, 370b, 384a; 141a (cipher), 119b (refraction), 169b ("Here- 
after? 'Tis a supposed infinite"), 185a (like lines in geometry), 
1 13a (" love is like a circle "), 221b ; Sphere 254a. 

Music: 9a (" Love . . . tunes the soul in sweetest harmonv"); 
60a, 78b, 113b, 122b ("we have spurr'd him forward evermore. 
Letting him know how fit an instrument He was to play upon in 
stately music"), cf. 104a ("thus you may play on me;"' 
124a (" like a virginal jack "), i6ia ("Still in that discord and 
ill-taken note"), 172b ("music-footed"), 173a (consort of har- 
mony), 212b (consort), 235b (music), 240a (in tune), 245b; 
cf. 1 15b, 48b. 

Painting and Sculpture : 47b-48a (beauty " like a cozening 
picture"), 154a (paints), 227b (like Arras pictures); 140a (like 
unskillful statuaries), 175a (" Here like a Roman statue I will 
stand Till death hath made me marble"), 193a ("Like statues, 
much too high made for their bases"), so 236a, cf. 140b. 

Law: cf. 199a, 63b, 193b (" No time occurs to kings"), 267a, 
'3b (Nature's serjeant John Death), 6ia (freehold), 63a (" of 
counsel with"); 63b (Seal), 148a, 318a, 325b ; 66a (" Curses are 

'Cf. Hamlet, III ii 355. 



114 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

like causes in law," etc., 8 11.), 68a ("show love's warrant"), 69b 
(plea to confess action), 96b (bonds), 117b (copy), 314a (" hold 
thy tenement," etc.), 314b ("enjoy your reversion"), cf. 320b; 
339a (" What ? shall we have replications, rejoinders?"); 208a 
("delays. Bribing the eternal Justice"), 267b, 109b. 

Government, etc.: 117a (monopolies and free-trade), cf. 
309b ; 162b (grief's sceptre), i88a (crown), so 199b, 213b, 220b ; 
271a (life a tyranny); 121b ("his mind is his kingdom");' 372b 
(the soul empress of the body); to engross 102a, ii6a, 286b. 

Medical : 6a ("A Spaniard is compared to the great elixir or 
golden medicine"), 72a ("extreme diseases Ask extreme 
remedies "), cf. 310a ; 96b (" this unmed'cinable balm Of worded 
breath"), 107a (patience a medicine), 151a (medicine), cf. 215b, 
2i6b ("this physic That I intend to minister "), i9Sb ("Since 'tis 
such rhubarb to you"), 238a (balm, etc.), 250b (pills, etc.), 259b 
("Where medicines loathe, it irks men to be heal'd "), 267b 
(" How like a cure, by mere opinion, It works upon our blood !"), 
315a (physic), 317b (medicine), 329a (physic); 162b (grief a 
sickness), 175a ("he dies splinted with his chamber grooms"), 
255a (the March sun breeds ague), 313a (like sick men), 339b 
("I'll cut off all perished members"), 374b ("As men Healthful 
through all their lives to grey-haired age. When sickness takes 
them once, they seldom 'scape; So Csesar "), 62b ("as fat as a 
physician"), 368b (physicians); 19a (cankered), so 89a; 66b 
(salve), so 97a, 298b, 334a, 232b; 183b (tumour), 265a, 376a ; 
Infect looa, 120a, 309b, 218a, 223a, 224a, 240a; Leprosy 260a ; 
Pleurisy 265b; Purge ii6b, 149a, etc.; Wound ib, 68b, 120a, 
277b, 164b, 165b, 238a, 239a, 370a, 376a, 380a. 

Various Estates and Occupations: 163b (gardener), 204a 
(like misers), 20 ^Si {" Chalon. "How took his noblest mistress 
your sad message? Aumale. As great rich men take sud- 
den poverty"), 223b ("As a city dame, Brought by her jealous 
husband to the Court," etc.), cf. 253a; 227a, ("like men, that, 
spirited with wine. Pass dangerous places safe"); 270b ("this 
body but ... A slave bound face to face to death, till death"), 

'Cf. Dyer's poem, Ward's English Poets, I 377. This sentiment is traced 
to Seneca's Thyestes, and is frequently employed by Elizabethan writers. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 115 

cf. 149a, 209a, 358a; 355b (Fortune Caesar's page); 156a ("like 
woodmongers, Piling a stack of billets"); Usher 276b, 231a; 
Thief 109a; Hangman, Gallows, etc. 195b, 292a; Giant 157b, 
207b, 208a, 235b, 378b; 155b ("Worse than the poison of a red- 
haired man") ; Inn 329a. 

Trades and Practical Arts: Merchants, Shops, etc., 53b 
(Nature's debt-book), 60a (set his gifts to sale), 236a (bank- 
rout), cf. 313a, 266b; 284b (" My shop of good fortune," etc.), 
325a (the merchant who ventures his all in one bottom), 327b 
("To set open a shop of mourning!"), 201a ("our state-mer- 
chants"), 225a (" Fortune is so far from his creditress That she 
owes him much"); Anvil 245b, 260b, 284a ("I have you upon 
mine anvil"); Forge 134b, T03a, 131b, 221b, etc.; 282a ("this 
warp of dissembling"), 287a (homespun) ; 317a (like the needle 
of a dial); Pawn 69a, 164a. Building: 4b (" Sleep shall not 
make a closet for these eyes"), 220a (mansions), 270b (the body 
= the "groundwork and raised frame of woe and frailty"), 284b 
("Thus shall I with one trowel daub two walls "), 154b (stone- 
laying), 236a (foundation and roof), 355a (building on sandy 
grounds), 376b; Built 326b, 183b, 246a; Fabric 171b, 200b; 
Wainscot 183a; 336a ("Near-allied trust is but a bridge for 
treason"); 251b ("hath but two stairs in his high designs; The 
lowest envy and the highest blood") ; Gates 43a ; Doors, lock, 
knock 51a, 128a, 312a, 153b, 217a, 317b; cf. 261b (pull down 
and repair), and 48a (Women like an Egyptian temple), 9b 
(Love's temple) ; 137b (trestles), cf. Prop 175a, 231a, 266a, 
376a. 

Agriculture: 327a ("As a mower sweeps off th' heads of 
bents, So did Lysander's sword" . . .) ; Sowing seed 142a, 201a; 
142a (ploughing), 109b; 158b (gathering fruit); Glean 84a. 

Mining: 6ia, 96b, 233a. 

Ships and Sailing: 293b (pinnace), 301b ("we have sailed 
the man-of-war out of sight, and here we must put into harbor"), 
cf. 333b; 309b (bore up to, and clapped aboard), 319a ("The 
shipwrack of her patience"), 223a (sailing), 328a (like seamen's 
offerings); 122b (to keep wits under hatches), i4ob-i4ia (simile 
of the seaman and the pilot, 14 11.), 157b (wind and sails), 158b 



Il6 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. ' 

(voyage), 212b (simile of the ship stopping at a far-removed 
shore for water, etc., 14 11.), 233b: 

" Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea 
Loves to have his sails fill'd with a lusty wind, 
Even till his sail-yards tremble, his masts crack, 
And his rapt ship run on her side so low 
That she drinks water, and her keel plows air." 

Sports, Amusements, etc.: 48a (women "inconstant shuttle- 
cocks"), 203b (like children playing at quoits); Dice igSa ("any 
die she [Fortune] throws"), 317a, 365a; Cards 4b (a face 
like the ace of hearts!), cf. 123b, 258a, 355a ("he can As good 
cards show for it as Cjesar did"), 311b ("the discarding of such 
a suitor"); Archery 276b ("Still from the cushion"), 150b 
("archers ever Have two strings to a bow "), 202a ("Kings are 
like archers, etc. 8 11.), 221b ("to pull shafts home, with a good 
bow-arm. We thrust hard from us "), 224a ("like to shafts Grown 
crook'd with standing," etc.); Hunting 276b, 317a (" I'll retrieve 
the game "), 326b ("men hunt hares to death for their sports, but 
the poor beasts die in earnest "), 335a (" I have you in the wind "), 
336a (hare and hounds), 157b (hunting the hart), 224a (like the 
disguise of hunters and fowlers), 270a (like the hunted boar), 
359b (simile of the hunted lion; cf. also 165b); Hawking 114b 
("muffled and mew'd up her beauties"), 155b ("like brave 
falcons," etc.), 194a (to check at), 208b (quarry), 227b ("We must 
have these lures when we hawk for friends"), 234a (check, and 
stoop). 252a (like a cloud that hawks at kingdoms), 270b ("leave 
my soul to me ... I feel her free : How she doth rouse, and 
like a falcon stretch Her silver wings, as threatening death with 
death; x\t whom I joyfully will cast her off"). 

Domestic Life: 176a ("Virtue imposeth more than any 
step-dame"), 154a (torture the sire of pleasure), 56a ("the fond 
world Like to a doting mother glozes over Her children's imper- 
fections with fine terms "), 69a (credulity the younger brother of 
folly) 220a ("be twins Of cither's fortune;" cf. 170a), 308a 
(the portion of younger brothers, — valor and good clothes), 
378a (death and sleep brothers); 315b (changeling); 50a (riches 
a wife); 199b ("married to the public good"), 238b ("married to 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 1 1? 

victory"); 189a (like children on hobby horses), 203b (like chil- 
dren playing at quoits) ; 223b (simile of the jealous husband), cf. 
253a; 27a ("to make virtue an idle housewife"), ii6a ("she's an 
ill housewife of her honor"), 317b ("these strait-laced ladies"); 
Dower 109a (of beauty), 49b ; 96b ("Pains are like women's 
clamors, which the less They find men's patience stirr'd, the more 
they cease "). 

Dress and Ornaments: 3b ("work it in the sampler of your 
heart"), 5b (to patch up love), 156b ("the outward patches of our 
frailty, Riches and honor"), cf. 237a; 94a ("he that cannot turn 
and wind a woman Like silk about his finger, is no man") ;' cf. 
99a ("I'll be as apt to govern as this silk"), 317b (spinning); 191b 
("the gay rainbow, girdle to a storm "); Veil 67b, 159b, 332a 
("the happiest evening, That ever drew her veil before the sun "), 
231a; Bombast, Fustian, etc., 79b (a'fustian lord . . . a buckram 
face), 156a, 191b ("bombast polity"), 142a (naps); Cloak 150a, 
176b, i8ia; 170a ("my breasts, Last night your pillows"); 
Clothe 212b. 327b; Mask 164b, 184b, 292b, 304a, 309b; Jewels 
154a, 155b, i8ib, 220a, 22ia, 308b; 13a (eyes like diamonds, 
lips like rubies, etc.), cf. 50b; cf. 321a (shrunk in the wet- 
ting); LTntruss 233b; Ingrain 308a, cf. 265a; Wear threadbare 
340a. 

Colloquial and Familiar Images : Chapman's comedies, like 
Ben Jonson's, abound with images of this sort, in the invention 
of which he manifests considerable ingenuity. Many of those 
classified under other headings also are used for comic effect : 
e. g. 4b (a face like the ace of hearts), cf. 123b; 318a (to lick 
into shape), 27b (bird;, cf. 45b, 62a (gudgeon), 64b (sauce), 71b 
("looks much like an ape had swallowed pills"), 79b ("a parcel 
of unconstrued stuff"), 129b (goldfinches), 278a (like a dog in a 
furmety pot),^ 2S4b, 290b, 304a (truant in the school of friend- 
ship), 321a (shrunk in the wetting), 300a (Quintiliano's compar- 
ison of a feast and a battle). See also: 87b (the apotheosis of 
brooms!), 292a (metaphor of gallows and hangman), cf. 195b; 
287a ("she nails mine ears to the pillory with it"); 290b ("he 

' Cf. Webster, gsb. 

= Cf. Massinger, 77^^ yi/(?/(/o/ //<:w(?r, V i 14. 



Il8 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

drew such a kind of tooth from him indeed"); 291a ("make 
both their absences shoeing-horns to draw on the presence of 
-<4imilia") so 136b, 137b; 304a (skill in baked meats), 311b ("let 
her pluck the goose"); 317b ("you had almost lifted his wit off 
the hinges"); 330a ("you women are a kind of spinners; if their 
legs be plucked off, yet still they'll wag them; so will you your 
tongues"); 4a ("a face thin like unto water gruel"); i2a(ridi- 
cule of various pet names, "cony," "lamb," etc.); 29a ("I have 
an eye and it were a polecat"); 31b ("quagmired in philoso- 
phy"); 32b ("like to cream-bowls, all their virtues swim in their 
set faces"), cf. 159b; cf. 40a ("Drown'd in the cream-bowls of 
my mistress' eyes"); 36b ("a proverb hit dead in the neck like a 
cony"); 53b (distasteful love "is like a smoky fire In a cold 
morning," etc.); 54b ("to lie at rack and manger"); 63b ("let 
us endure their [women's] bad qualities for their good; allow the 
prickle for the rose, the brack for the velvet, the paring for the 
cheese, and so forth"); 70a ("your wife that keeps the stable of 
your honor"); 89a (simile of the turnspit — "The most fit simile 
that ever was"); iooa("likea Tantalus pig"); 128a ("my ears 
are double locked"); 132b ("my worth for the time kept its 
bed"), 135b ("he lay a caterwauling"); 298a ("thus shall his 
daughter's honor ... be preserved with the finest sugar of 
invention"); 315a ("has given me a bone to tire on"); 324a 
(" I'll be as close as my lady's shoe to her foot"); 338b ("this 
wooden dagger," i.e. this poor fellow); 145b ("Were not the 
king here, he should strew the chamber like a rush"); 165a 
("Love is a razor," etc.); 173a ("a fit pair of shears "^ — i. e. 
Guise and Monsieur; so 319a); 179a ("scarecrow-like"); i8ob 
(haste stands on needles' points), 182a ("emptied even the dregs 
Of his worst thoughts of me"), 200b (man = a rag of the uni- 
verse); 158a, 2ioa (to break the ice); 226b ("I fish'd for this"); 
228a (like the weight that draws a door shut). 

Coarse and Repulsive Images : Chapman's style is not deli- 
cate, and he has an undue proportion of repulsive imagery. 
The effect sometimes comes from a mere turn of phrase ; some- 
times from the deliberate coarseness of the comparison. Under 
other headings the frequent metaphorical use of such words as 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. II9 

"entrails," "poison," "snakes," "toads," various diseases and 
medical terms, and the like, emphasizes this effect. 

Metaphors of Birth, and the like (e. g. To be great with, 
bring forth, beget, etc.), are very frequent: Sob, 99b ("The ass 
is great with child of some ill news"), 109b, 114a, 129b, 133b, 
134b, 135a, 277b, 319a; 144a, 150a, 151b, 162a (so 185a ver- 
batim), 194b, 248a, 257a, 265a, 378b. Similarly 191a, 157b, 
228a, 253a, 79b, cf. 223b ("his state-adultery"), 24a, ii6a, 169b, 
262a. Bawd, Strumpet etc. 114b, 200a, 233a, 260a, 267a, 271b. 
In general see also 41a, 182b ("Why have I raked thee Out of 
the dunghill ;" cf. i6ib and 266b); 109b ("see how thou hast 
ripp'd Thy better bosom"), cf. 217b, 233b; 370b ("The rotten- 
hearted world"), cf. 145a, 376a; 281a (a series of disgusting 
comparisons); 305b; 315a ("Drunkards, spew'd out of taverns"), 
cf. 222b ("an expuate humor"), 339b; 146b ("She feeds on 
outcast entrails like a kite," etc.); 155b ("kings soothed guts"); 
372a ("the parings of a . . man"). 

The Body, its Parts, Functions and Attributes: cf. 229a. 
Heart 4a ("the heart of heaven, the glorious sun"), 225a, 
233b; Bosom, breast, 22a ("bosom of the air"), 212a (''earth's 
sad bosom"), 215a; 155b ("the brain of truth"); Cheek 200b 
("cheek by cheek"), so 216a; Eye la ("thy mind's eternal eye"), 
244b ("a calm ... In which the eyes of war may -ever 
sleep"); 172a ("Tumbling her billows in each other's neck"); 
Gall 2iia, 229a; Finger 154b, 183b ("a man Built with God's 
finger"), 246a, 249b, 365b, 367a; Stomach 365b; i8a (the womb 
of hell); Entrails 4a,5b, 6ia, 109b, 208a, 210a, 217b, 155b, 163b, 
164b, 189b; 205b ("the joints and nerves sustaining nature"); 
Freckles 148b, i8ob ("blood . . . freckling hands and face"); 
Sweat 142a ("his unsweating thrift"), 217b; and many others. 

The Senses and Appetites: Food and Taste, 153b ("your 
conscience is too nice, And bites too hotly of the Puritan 
spice"), so 177a, iSia, 195b, 224a, 263a; 64b ("sauce That 
whets my appetite"); 68a ("such a mess of broth as this"); 8b 
(love a fig w'hich destroys the taste); 48b ("the sweet taste of 
love," etc.; cf. 52b); 289a ("help to candy this jest"); 300a 
(comparison of a feast and a battle); 278b (cloy), 313a; 332b 



I20 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

(banquet), cf. 141b; 141a (surfeit), so i66a, 221a, 251b; 182a, 
109a, 2i6a, 286b, 291a; Feed 79b, 115b, 206b; Thirst 167b 
("within the thirsty reach of your revenge"), 199b, 215b, 243a, 
364b; Drink 96b; Smell 6ia ("I smell how this gear will fall 
out"), 72b, 165b, 190b ("life's dear odors, a good mind and 
name"); Hearing 239b; Digest 80b ("digest your scoffs"), cf. 
205a; Devour iSib, 217b; 220a (eating cares); To eat one's 
heart i6ib, 176b, 217a. 

Subjective Life, Religion, etc.: Heaven 48b, 49a, 64a (" this 
earthly paradise of wedlock"), 187b, 376a; Hell ioa("a hell- 
ish conscience"), i6a, 115a ("this unworthy hell of passionate 
earth"), 240a, 163b (devil), 335a ("that devil jealousy, hath 
tossed him hither on his horns"); Angel 33b ; 267b (kings are 
like the ancient gods), 187b (rule of kings like that of God; 20 
11.), 227b (kneeling to king = a superstition); 237a (the ancient 
Persians and their idols), 328a; 229a (canonize); 48a (Women like 
Egyptian temples, beautiful without, but with idols inside; 12 
11.); 171a ("as illiterate men say Latin prayers;" 12 II.); Sect 
105a; Rites 58b, 155a, 174b; Votary 137a, 333a, 194b ("a poor 
woman, votist of revenge"); Shrine 6ia, 328a; 123a ("to make 
his eyes Do penance by their everlasting tears "); Sanctuary 156a 
(the law = a S.), 156b, 365b; Oracle 172b, 291b; Spirits, Ghosts, 
etc., 147b (like the wounds of spirits which close at once), 1 60b 
(" his advanced valor Is like a spirit raised without a circle, 
Endangering him that ignorantly raised him "), 163b, 244b, 269b, 
(cf. i66b); To haunt 146a, 287b; i6ib ("like . . . naturals, That 
have strange gifts in nature, but no soul Diffused quite through"); 
23ob-23ia (omens, spirits, etc.), 365a; Dream 140b (" Man is . . . 
a dream But of a shadow")', 194b, 205b (simile of dreams, 12 
11.), 243b; Astrology and Influence of Stars 233a, 217b, 338b; 
Alchemy 216a; Magic Glasses loob, 102b, 141b, 167a, 244a, 370a. 

Death, the Grave, etc.: 229a ("all his armies shook, 
Panted, and fainted, and were ever flying Like wandering pulses 
spersed through bodies dying"), 297b ("So parts the dying 
body from the soul As I depart from my Emilia"), cf. 379; 
271a (" like a man Long buried, is a man that long hath lived : 

'Cf. Pindar, cr/ctas hvap ; cf. Tennyson's Sonnet to W. H. Brookfield. 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. I 21 

Touch him, he falls to ashes"); 163b ("like Death Mounted on 
earthquakes"); 13b ("Having the habit of cold death in nie"), 

329a : "This [the tomb] is the inn where all Deucalion's race, 
Sooner or later, must take up their lodging. 
No privilege can free us from this prison." 

165a (the grave of oblivion); Breathing sepulchres 189a, 270b, 
370b; Buried quick' 203b, 260a, 270b, 114b, 122b. 

"War; Siege, Fort, etc., 9a (simile of the fortified town, 8 11.), 
65b, 96b, 2i6b, 232a, 253a, 261b, 275b, 154a, 156a, 185b (like sol- 
diers capturing a besieged town : loll.); Assault 26b; 9b (" Love 
that has built his temple on my brows, Out of his battlements 
into my heart"); 337a (Love "Runs blindfold through an army 
of misdoubts"); 68a ("Take truce with passion "); 165b (to fire 
a train) cf. i68a; Powder, Sulphur, etc., 147b, 194b, 208b, 317b, 
etc; 173b (mustering); 171b (like ships of war); 300a (a feast 
compared to a field of battle); 105b ("Now must I exercise my 
timorous lovers, Like fresh-arm'd soldiers, with some false 
alarms"); 126b (divided affections, like an army disarrayed); 
151b ("receive My soul for hostage"); 271a (to die like the cap- 
tain); 330a (to quit the field); 162b (wars), 164b ("Irish wars. 
More full of sound than hurt"); cf. also 278a; 284b (to trail a 
pike under love's colors); Bulwark 17b, 174b, 260a, cf. 376b- 
Arms, Weapons, etc. 113b (Love's armory) 63a ("the buckler 
which Nature hath given all women, I mean her tongue "), 174b, 
193b (the shield of reason), 203b; 314a ("such a disgrace as is a 
battered helmet on a soldier's head; it doubles his resolution "), 
135a (armed); Cannon i66a (the thunder, Jove's Artillery), so 
364a; 198b (cannon spits iron vomit), 170a ("the chain-shot of 
thy lust");' so 205a; 199a (" as a great shot from a town besieged;" 
8 11.); 162a ("like a murthering-piece, making lanes in armies "); 
2i8b ("What force hath any cannon, not being charged. Or 
being not discharged?"); 226a ("And him he sets on, as he had 
been shot Out of a cannon"); 175b (a funeral volley of sighs!) ; 
Sheathe 259b; To shoot 164b ("You have shot home"), 158a, 

' Cf. Sidney's Arcadia, Lond., 1893, P- 4^0 "quick buried in a grave of 
miseries." 

2Cf. Webster, 91a. 



122 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

236a, 66b; Heraldry 215b ("to make my cannons The long- 
tongued heralds of my hidden drifts"); 291b (rampant and 
passant); cf. 71b, 30b. 

The Stage and the Drama: Tragedy 164a, 167a, 209a, 
("Clermont must author this just tragedy"), 360a; 22b 
("like an old king in an old-fashion play"); 133b (Plaudite); 
285b (satire on artificial disguises); 327a ("act the nuntius ;" "a 
plain acting of an interlude ;" " her cue "); To play a part 8ia, 
165b, 313b, 327a, 339a (" Nay, the Vice must snap his authority 
at all he meets, how shall't else be known what part he plays?"); 
249b (like nuntius and chorus), 145b (" 'Tis one of the best jigs 
that ever was acted "). 

Miscellaneous: Melt, dissolve 17b, 322a; Mirror, glass 51b, 
112b, 309a, 144a, 147a, 162b, 2i8a, 255b ("for one they'll 
give us twenty faces, Like to the little specks on sides of 
glasses"), 167a; Model, pattern, mould, 255b, 323a, 293a, 338b, 
316b; Colors: Black 55a (black anger), 62b, 69a, 167a, 194b, 
196b, 202b, 209a, 232b ; White 209b (a white pretext); Green 66b 
(green experience), ib (a green wound), 238a (so green a brain); 
232b (so blue a plague); Poison, venom, etc., 38b, 41a ("the 
poison of thy tongue"), 232b, 309b, 330a, 165a, i66a ("the 
poison of a woman's hate "), 174a, 215b, 217a, 221b, 238a, 2Joa, 
247a, 259b, 260b, 368a, 375b, 380b; Instrument, Engine, Organ 
\56a, 305b, 150a; Coin, counterfeit 79b, 135a, 230a, 323b, 330b; 
Painted iiib, 189b, 206b, 356b; Swim 234a, 253a; Drown 68b, 
40a, ii6a, 119b, 126a, 223b, 229a, 232a, 235a, 245a, 255b, 277b, 
328a, 142a, 154a, 183b, 370b, 37Sa, 379a; Pierce 26b, 53a, 109a, 
("That makes the news so loth to pierce mine ears "), iioa, 115a, 
135a, 308a, 223a; To sound a depth 159b, 194b, 222a, 224a, 
227a, 240a, 246b ("you were our golden plummet To sound this 
gulf of all engratitude"), 356b, 378b; Snare, springe, etc. 159b, 
275a; entangle 130a, 281a; To tie i68a("his dark words have 
tied my thoughts in knots"), 196b, 311a, 321b; Whet 73a, 133a, 
138b, 308a, 323a; Edge 31a, 326b; Scourge, whip i6a ("do but 
tongue-whip him "), 285b ("be whipped naked with the tongues 
of scandal and slander"), 19a, 332b, 156a, 246b; To wind into 
i2ia ("with such cunning wind into his heart"), 227b, 368b; To 



GEORGE CHAPMAN. 123 

rip, rip up 109b, 147b; To cut the thread (of life, etc.), 67b, 
127a, 319a, 320a, cf. 317b, 162a, 173a; Naked 69b ("Time will 
strip truth into her nakedness"), 293a, 182a, 194b, 244b; To 
smother 114b, 142a ("thy long-smothered spirit"), 189b, 217a, 
223a, 254b; To weigh in balance, etc., 147b, 228b; To bear up a 
burden (like Atlas, etc.), 115a, 155a, 193b, 260b, cf. 190b; Puff 
up, blow up 183, 184a, 2oia; Sift 254a; Clock 154b ("our false 
clock of life"). 

Recapitulation : Nature and human life in all their more 
prominent aspects are copiously represented in Chapman's 
imagery.' 

In the tragedies a good proportion of the more striking 
images are drawn from nature, and occasionally show a poet's 

keenness of observation. See for example the 

His Nature u • r • <. r ^u 1 1 / \ ^u u 

brief picture of the lark (p. 47a); the humorous 

touch upon the habits of the jackdaw (65b); the 
description of the ill-effect of eastern winds in bringing cater- 
pillars upon the fruits (162a); the very beautiful short simile of 
the calm before the tempest (164a); the short cloud simile (p. 
245b): 

" We must ascend to our intention's top. 
Like clouds, that be not seen till they be up." 

And the simile (207b) of the eagle running on the ground to 
get a flying start, — Wordsworth has somewhere a few lines describ- 
ing the same phenomenon of bird life ; or finally the simile of 
the fall of the oak in Arden (p. 148a). 

In the comedies, on the other hand, the chief feature is the 
number of colloquial and idiomatic images, recalling at times the 
manner of Jonson, the great master in this vein. The comedies, 
and the tragedies only in a less degree, are unfortunately marred 
by a large proportion of coarse and repulsive images. Perhaps 
the segregation of these images in the analysis gives them a worse 
effect than as they stand in the text, where however they are bad 
enough. 

'"His learning was very great and very wide ; but he is equally ready to 
associate his ideas with objects of nature and of daily life." (Ward, Eng. 
Dram. Lit., II 10). 



124 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

In review we may note the prominence of the following sorts 
of images in Chapman : In his Nature imagery, especially in con- 
stantly recurring metaphors, clouds, mists, exhalations, vapors, 
fires, tempests, eclipses, earthquakes, chaos, thunder, meteors, and 
the like, occur very often and are highly characteristic of Chap- 
man's grandiose manner. Favorites with him also are the images 
of fount, stream, and sea, of undereaten cliffs and up-piled moun- 
tains, of storm-beaten trees and frost-nipped flowers, of eagles, 
lions, tigers, wolves and serpents. It is the fierce and active, 
the awe-inspiring and Titanic aspects of Nature that interest him 
most and seem best to serve his purpose. Many comparisons 
are drawn from literature, the stage, music, law, and medicine, 
from the trades and occupations of men ; few from agriculture 
or country life ; several excellent ones from ships and sailors' 
lives, especially in storms ; many from hunting and hawking, 
ftom domestic life, including dress and ornament, and from 
religion and the subjective world (dreams, mental operations, 
spirits, witchcraft, death, etc.). Very significant are the images 
from war and its surroundings, tending to corroborate the con- 
jecture sometimes advanced that the many years of Chapman's 
early life, unaccounted for by his biographers, were some of them 
spent in seeing some sort of military service abroad. Equally 
striking, however, is the comparative paucity of such similes in 
Ben Jonson, who is known to have seen such service. Finally 
there are a number of miscellaneous metaphors highly character- 
istic of Chapman, but which do not alter essentially the impres- 
sion of his habits of mind derived from the preceding analysis. 



BEN JONSON 



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1 6 16 Every Man in his Humor 

Every Man out of his Hutnor - 
Cynthia's Revels - 
The Poetaster 
Sejanits, his Eall 
Volpone, or The Fox 
Epicoene, or The Silent IFonian 
The Alchemist 
Catiline, his Conspiracy 
Bartholomew Fair - 
The Devil is an Ass 
The Staple of News - 

The New In>i, or the Light Heart II 335-384 
The Magnetic Lady, or Humors 

Reconciled - - - II 391-437 

A Tale of a Tub - - - II 439-4S3 

The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of 

Robin Hood - - - II 484-510 

1640 The Fall of Mortimer - - II 512-515 



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125 



BEN JONSON. 

Two things in Jonson's use of metaphor and simile stand out 
prominently, which have not as yet, so far as I know, received due 
notice. The first and less important is the abun- 
Two Notewor- ^^^nt use made by him of the animal world, fish, 
thy Features reptiles, insects, birds, wild and domestic animals.' 
Imi°er°'^ It is hardly a sympathetic use, since for the most 
part it is a mere trick of making animals, in every 
variety of collocation, stand as types of opprobrium, indeed often 
as mere bearers of billingsgate, as for example, in Corbaccio's 
little tirade in Volpone : 

" I will not hear thee. 

Monster of men, swine, goat, wolf, parricide ! 

Speak not, thou viper.'" 
It is a peculiarity which falls in well with Jonson's harsh and 
satirical vein. 

The second trait of note in Jonson's use of trope is his 
extreme ingenuity and profusion in the invention of colloquial, 
comic and familiar images.^ Jonson's comparisons in every vein 
are endlessly varied, but his colloquial imagery is unique in its 
extent and comic originality. It is the very salt of his dialogue, 
and it is evident that he relies on it to a great degree for his 
comic effects. It is used with characteristic conscientiousness 
and thoroughness as an aid in the exposition of character^ and 
in the enforcement of humors. 

' See infra, pp. 140-143. 

« Act IV, Sc. ii, Vol. I, p. 382b. 

3 See infra, pp. 149-151. This reference, however, represents only a small 
part of the images of Jonson in this sort, which must be sought also under every 
other head. 

4 As a single example note the characteristic similes put into the mouth of 
Dame Ursula in Bartkolomezv Fair, coarse, reeking, and unctuous, like the 
unworthy dame herself ! cf. II 167a ("I find by her similes she wanes apace"). 



128 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Jonson goes about his work deliberately and with full con- 
sciousness. He abounds in classical and literary ornament. In 

spite of the great number of references given below, 
Self-conscious- i i • i n • • , i . ■ r 

however, classical allusion is not so obtrusive a fea- 
ness in 
Simile Making ^^^^^ ^^ '^'i'sl^ as it is in Lyly, Greene, Peele, 

and even Marlowe.' He was interested in the 
theory of his art, and introduces many references to it into the 
' Some of the more striking illustrations occur as follows : Various mention 
of the Gods I 195b, 357a, 423b, II 19b, 47a, loib, 187b, 362a; Vulcan I 66b, 
298a; Ganymede I 114b; Janus I 76a, 103a; Hercules I 103a, 428b ("I have 
sold my liberty to a distaff"), 227b ("He cleaves to me like Alcides' shirt"); II 
I2ib; Atlas I 296a, II 121b; Typhceus I 327b; Colossus I 285a; The Hesper- 
ides I 86b, 122a, 7a ("play the Hesperian dragon with my fruit"), so I 28a, II 
364b; The war of the Giants against the Gods I 310a, 327b, II loib, 139b ; 
Chimjera I 397b; Centaurs I 444b, II 371a; Medusa and the Gorgon's head I 
138a, 418a, 433a, 11 139b; The Furies I 364b, II 6b, i66a; The Fates and the 
thread of life I 90b (" the muffled Fates "), 322b (" I knew the Fates had on their 
distaff left More of our thread"), 388a (" Is his thread spun?"); Harpies I 
259b, 342b, II 297a; Sirens I 93a, 379a, II 171b, 296b; Garden of Adonis I 
122a, 20ib; Hydra I 227b, II 122b; Ulysses 1349b; Agamemnon I 119a; 
Medea I 436b; CEdipus and the Sphinx I 295a; Ixion I 244b; Danae II 50a; 
I 245a (" can becalm All sea of Humor with the marble trident Of their strong 
spirits"); Cupid I 357b, II 508b ("the delicious Karol That kissed her like a 
Cupid"); ^■Esculapius envied by Jove 1149a; Morning in her car II 82b; II 
107b ("men made of better clay. Than ever the old potter Titan knew") ; II 
311b ("They '11 sing like Memnon's statue and be vocal"); II 493b (blue as 
burning Scamander, etc.). Cf. also II 20b (Sir Epicure Mammon's classical 
curios!), 165a (Orpheus and Ceres), 343b, 494a ("when Cupid smiled, And 
Venus led the Graces out to dance"); Labyrinth I 216a, 368b (labyrinth of 
lust), 395a, II 31a; Wheel of Fortune I 328a ; Occasion and her forelock II 
380a, I 182a ("let us then lake our time by the forehead"); Nectar I 306a, II 
8la, 357b; etc. 

Some of the more important literary allusions, parodies, quotations, etc., 
are as follows (I omit more general reference to Jonson's literary quarrels, which 
are supposed to occupy many passages in his plays : — see the Poetaster, etc, 
passim); I 13 (parody on Kyd) ; 98a (parody of Daniel), so II 200b, 310b 
(" Dumb rhetoric and silent eloquence ! As the fine poet says "), cf. I 415b ; I 88b 
(as choice figures .... as any be in the Arcadia, — or rather in Greene's works ; " 
cf. loib, II 187a); Shakspere I 126b (Justice Silence), 139b (Falstaff ); Euphues 
I 137b; Tom Coryat II 179b; Marlowe's Hero and Leander II 199a; The Mir- 
ror for Magistrates II 208b ; Lusty Juventus II 214b; Chaucer II 344a, 353a, 
367a, 415. John Heywood II 476b; Skelton II 479b ; Jonson (of himself ) I 
415b, II 417b : II 383a (to venture among savages " like a she-Mandeville ") ; II 



B£A' JOXSOiV. 129 

body of his plays/ Two of his characters, indeed, are mere per- 
sonifications of the humor of simile-making. These are Carlo 
Buffone, in Every Man out of his Humor, — "a public, scurrilous, 
and profane jester, that, more swift than Circe, with absurd similes 
will transform any person into deformity,"* — and the part is con- 
sistently carried out — and Miles Metaphor, in A Tale of a Tub. 
Similarly Jonson tends to insist upon his figures and to make 
much of them. It is part of his method in art, as has been fre- 
quently observed, to leave as little as possible to be inferred, and 
to develop everything to the height of explicitness. So it is 

453a ("Bungy's dog"), cf. 474a; I 31b (Sir Bevis' horse); I ii6b("Sir Dagonet 
and his squire"), cf. 194a; I 169b (The Knight of the Sun) ; II 12a (Clim o' the 
Clough) ; etc. 

Homer II 349a; Plutarch I 406a, 11 242a; Lucian I 153a, 387b; II 266b 
("gull me with your ^Esop's fables"); Plautus I 107b; Tacitus I 444b ("As I 
hope to finish Tacitus ") ; Seneca 1448a ("What's six kicks to a man that 
reads Seneca?"); Ovid II 164b (and see the Poetaster, passim); I 410b ("such 
a Decameron of sport," etc); Don Quixote I 434b, II 6ia; Paracelsus 1 441b, II 28b; 
Faustus II 59b, 474a. See also references to various authors I 232f. (parody of 
" King Darius' doleful strain," The Battle of Alcazar, The Spanish Tragedy and 
The Blind Beggar of Alexandria), 365b (Plato, Petrarch, Tasso, Dante, "Mon- 
tagnie," etc.), 415b ("so she may censure poets and authors and styles, and 
compare them; Daniel with Spenser, Jonson with t'other youth"), 416-417 
(Sir John Daw's literary judgments on Plutarch, Seneca, Aristotle, Plato, 
Homer, Virgil, Horace, Persius, etc.), II 349a (Homer, Virgil, Arthur, Amadis 
de Gaul, Pantagruel, etc.), I 192b (burlesque of conventional conceits), so 
194b; Various allusions: I 62 ("a very Jacob's staff of compliment"), 82b (St. 
George and the dragon), 117b (Judas, etc.), 174b ("Who answers the brazen 
head? it spoke to somebody" ; cf. Shirley, Hyde Park II iv — Mermaid ed. p. 
207), 189a ("He makes a face like a stabbed Lucrece " — see Gifford's note); 
231a (Howleglas), 429b ("Amazonian impudence"), II i8b ("here's the rich 
Peru," Solomon's Ophir, etc.), 19a (the Indies); II 40b (Dover pier, etc.), 209a' 
296b (London Bridge); etc. 

Historical allusions among all the rest are not infrequent in Jonson, e. g. 
I 371a (Cleopatra's pearl), 435a (the taking of Ostend) ; II 50a (Nero's Pop- 
psea), I 444a (The Guelphs and Ghibellmes), II 208b (Columbus, Magellan, etc.), 
301b (Pocahontas); and Sejanus and Catiline, passim. 

•See the references to figures and tropes I 9b, 13b (conceit), 14a ("rusty 
proverb"), 224b; Simile I 48a, 62a, 71b, 79b, ii6b, 190b, II 167a, i68b; Meta- 
phor I 9b, 67a, 149a, II 353b, 355b, 439af. ; figures, tropes, etc., I 88b, 386b, 
284b, II 22ia, 352a, 439, 445b, 475a. 

»I 62 ; cf. 71b, 79b, II 6b. 



130 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

with his treatment of character and plot, and so it is in his treat- 
ment of metaphor and simile. If a conceit occurs to him, odd 
or ludicrous in its way, he is not satisfied to suggest it in a brief 
metaphorical phrase and then to pass on, but the jest must be 
pursued and exploited to its utmost. Thus, instead of describ- 
ing a fool's brain with Jacques,' as being " as dry as the remainder 
biscuit after a voyage," we are told that the foolish courtier in 
E7'ery Man out of his Humor'' among his other affectations, 

. . . "now and then breaks a dry biscuit jest. 
Which, that it may be more easily chewed, 
He steeps in his own laughter." ^ 

Still in fairness it should be said that Jonson has fewer 
forced conceits than Shakspere, and that his method in dialogue 
is on the whole lively and natural, as far as mere wit and comic 
effect are concerned. 

The imagery of the two tragedies is totally unlike that of 
the comedies. It is generally colorless and conventional, and 

apparently modeled on the style of the Latin ora- 
Dictionofhis ^^^^ ^^^ historians, much of it, indeed, being 
XrscGdics 

directly borrowed from these sources. These two 

pieces contain considerable hyperbole and personification of the 
conventional sort."* The diction at times remotely suggests that 
of Chapman's tragedies ; not so remotely, however, but that we 
can conjecture the common models on which both are founded.^ 

' As You Like It, II, vii, 39. 

^ Induction, Vol. I, p. 6Sa. 

3See further examples I 71a, 71b, 96b, io8b, 147a, 149a, 431a, etc. 

4 Personification 1310a, II 82b, 83b, 102b, 105a, 109b, 138a, 139, etc. 
Hyperbole I 280a, 287a, 295a, 308b, 314b, 322a, II Sob, 8ia, 8ib, 83b, 89a, 99a, 
Ida, 125b, 128b, 139a, etc. 

SI find, for example, that the description of Catiline's last fight, in the con- 
cluding scene of the play of that name (Vol. II, p. 139), reminds me very 
strongly of Chapman. Compare, for example, the description of the duel in 
Bussy HAmbois, Act II, Sc. i (p. I47b-I48). Did Jonson have Chapman in 
mind in writing this scene? A somewhat similar method is exemplified in the 
description of the battle in Kyd's translation of Gamier's Cornelia, Act V (Haz- 
litt's Dodsley, V 242-245). How far may Chapman have been indebted to 
French models in his tragedies drawn from French subjects? 



BEN JONSON. 131 

Outside of the tragedies, however, the general impression of 

Jonson's imagery is that of a strong, labored, and varied realism. 

, Of poetical imagery there is little, though at times 

the heat of his satirical mood inspires him with 
serious and forcible images. And occasionally, also, Jonson's 
peculiar cumulative and analytical method results in effects equal 
to the most striking imagery. So Charles Lamb' has remarked 
of Sir Epicure Mammon's glowing daydreams in 77/1? Alchemist: 
" If there be no one image which rises to the height of the sublime, 
yet the confluence and assemblage of them all produces an effect 
equal to the grandest poetry." Of course the songs and the 
masques are not considered in these criticisms. In these, as 
Mezieres* has observed, a high poetic quality is maintained, and 
"les images et les metaphores s'y succedent avec une abondance 
naturelle." Jonson's aim in comedy is presented with sufificient 

distinctness in more than one passage in his pro- 
Jonson's logues, epilogues, and by-plays or critical passages 

Restricted The- • , . ,, . ,- r ^1 ■ ^7 

j:^- . i. Within the scene. A portion of the passage m T/ie 
ones of his Art ^ j . 

Magnetic Lady,^ with its suggestions at a distance 

of Hamlet,'^ exhibits the realistic aim he held before himself. "If 
I see a thing vively presented on the stage, that the glass of cus- 
tom, which is comedy, is so held up to me by the poet, as I can 
therein view the daily examples of men's lives, and images of 
truth in their manners, so drawn, for my delight or profit, as I 
may either way use them" . . . x\nd Jonson is indeed constantly 
preoccupied with the examples of men's daily lives and the 
images of truth in their manners. His range of allusion never- 
theless is wider than that of any other dramatist included in our 
study, but his allusions are characteristically those of the learned 
man 5 and the encyclopaedic observer rather than those of the 
idealist and the poet. His interest, strictly, is in human life and 

' Specimens, 283. 
^ Pred. et Cont. de Shaks., p. 363. 
3 Act II, Sc. ii (Vol. II, p. 410a). 
■♦Act III, sc. ii. 

5 " The literature of the Renaissance, Erasmus and Rabelais, the literature of 
the Middle Ages, books on sports and hunting, books on alchemy, books on 



132 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

manners. He refuses to adopt in comedy the grandiloquent or 
the romantic manner. His imagery correspondingly is subdued 
and colloquial in matter and manner. " We do not meet on our 
way," says Taine,' "extraordinary, sudden, brilliant images, 
which might dazzle or delay us; we travel on enlightened by 
moderate and sustained metaphors." Jonson's comedies are a 
mine of idiomatic English. He catches and records the current 
phrases and metaphors of common life. Almost nothing of the 
conventionally poetic invalidates his realistic diction. He is full of 
the homely sententiousness of daily life.° Proverbs and prover- 
bial phrases are constantly employed.^ Historical similes and 
examples, familiar and local allusions abound.'' But above all 
Jonson relies upon ludicrous and colloquial similitudes for comic 
and realistic effect. 

Jonson's pages are not so thickly sown with metaphor as are 
Chapman's and those of many others. His language is too real- 
istic for that. There are almost no prolonged similes^ and few 

natural history, books on Rosicrucian n[iysticism, furnish unexpected illustrations 
of the commonest, most vulgar incidents." (J. A. Symonds, Ben Jonson, p. 51.) 

" Son erudition lui prdsente sans cesse des images, des expressions, et des 
iddes empruntees a I'antiquite." (Mdzieres, Pred. et Cont. de Shaks., p. 186.) 

'Eng. Lit., Bk. II, ch. iii. (p. 271). 

' Sententious figures of a different, a Latin type, abound in the tragedies : 
e. g. I 289a, 290a, 293b, 304b, 307a, 314b, 326a, II 122a. 

3 For example, I i6b (to have the wrong sow by the ear), i6b (claps his 
dish at the wrong man's door), i8a ("As he brews so shall he drink"), 41a 
("Whose cow has calved?"), 49a (Fair hides may have foul hearts), 347a 
("Pour oil into their ears"), 390a ("The fox fares ever best when he is 
curst." cf. Greene, 173b), 447b (Strike while the iron is hot); II 69a 
("I'll pluck his bird as bare as I can "), io8a (Still waters run deepest), 
150a ("You have a hot coal in your mouth now, you cannot hold"), lS3b 
("He has a head full of bees"), i8ob (sits the wind in that quarter), 328a (a 
tub without a bottom), 328b (" a rat behind the hangings " — for eaves-dropping), 
403a (Call a spade a spade), 407a (a bird in the hand), 473b (for the black ox 
to tread on one's foot). And see A Tale of a Tub, passim, where the rustic dia- 
logue is liberally sprinkled with proverbs. See also I 393b (the fable of the I'ox 
and the Raven). And see further I 59a, 350a, 439b, II 117b, 151a, 153a, 176b, 
i8oa, i8ob, 2i8a, 251a, 344b, 345 with note, 376a, 406b, 425b, 430b, 436a, 443a, 
445a, 448a, 453b, 454a, 46sb, etc. 

^See infra, pp. 203-204. 

5 See however I 246b, 247a, II 88b. 



BEN JONSON. 133 

prolonged metaphorical passages." Short similes, however, are 
very frequently employed. 

In the effort for wit and comic effect it was inevitable that 

many of Jonson's colloquialisms should partake of the nature of 

conceits. But he does not search out conceits and 

load his style with them, as did Lyly and later the 
Jonson ^ ■' -^ 

poets of the "metaphysical" school. Indeed Jon- 
son like Shakspere'' has burlesqued the conceited style of the 
earlier school of poetry. In the fantastic contest of court- 
ship in Cynthia's Revels^ Mercury is made to utter a long rhap- 
sody in the Euphuistic vein on woman's beauty: "You are the 
lively image of Venus throughout; all the graces smile in your 
cheeks ; . . . you have a tongue steeped in honey, and a breath like 
a panther; your breasts aixd forehead are whiter than goat's milk 
or May blossoms," — and more to the same effect. Jonson's 
impulse to satire and parody gets the better of him again in a 
similar passage with burlesque touches'* immediately preceding 
the beautiful lyric "Do but look on her eyes, they do light All 
that love's world compriseth ! " Personification and hyperbole 
also are not wanting in the comedies as Avell as in the tragedies, 
though they are used with little serious import.^ In fact, Jon- 

' See I 28a, 122a, 132a, 279b, 319b, II 99a, etc. 
"In his 130th Sonnet. 
3 Act V Sc. ii (vol. I p. 192b). 

■• In The Devil is an Ass Act II Sc. ii (II 237b). See further also I 83b, 
2iia : 

"Then shall Lucretius' lofty numbers die, 
When earth and seas in fire and flame shall /rj'." 

— an unhappy metaphor which becomes a favorite with the poets of the next 
age ! Add II 317b (a passage of burlesque like the two referred to in the text 
above), 3S3b, 377a, 379b (burlesque of the conventional poetical hyperbole), 
501b ("I weep and boil away myself in tears"); and see the attempts of Miles 
Metaphor in A Tale of a Tub, passim. Jonson's similes, moreover, occasion- 
ally fall into ineptitudes of the worst sort. See, for example, I 140a (Elizabeth, 
the Thames, and the London sewers), 195a (the hills of tyranny, cast on virtue, 
etc.), and II 96b (kisses close as cockles — the same simile occurs in The 
Masque of Hymen, III 28b, where Mr. Swinburne has singled it out for ridicule. 
Cf. his "Study of Ben Jonson" p. 47). Jonson too is an inveterate punster. 

5 For examples of Personifications (in addition to those in the tragedies 
cited in note 4, p. 130, above) see I gob, 140b, 244b, 249a, 253a, 335 (Poetry), 



134 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

son's spirit of burlesque seizes upon these two respectable and 
time-honored figures also and makes them serve the ends of 
comedy. Pug, the unhappy devil, in shackles and waiting 
impatiently for the termination of his period of earthly torment, 
exclaims: "I think Time be drunk and sleeps, He is so still and 
moves not !'" I cannot but think also, in spite of the romantic 
tone of the speech, that there is an intention of burlesque con- 
cealed under the hyperbole of Lady Frampul's confession of 
love in The New Inn :'^ 

"Thou dost not know my sufferings, what I feel: 
My fires and fears are met ; I burn and freeze, 
, My liver's one great coal, my heart shrunk up, 

With all the fibres, and the mass of blood 
Within me is a standing lake of fire. 
Curled with the cold wind of my gelid sighs. 
That drive a drift of sleet through all my body. 
And shoot a February through my veins." 
This is either the worst of Jonson's dotages, or the very midsum- 
mer madness of feminine wits and the best of burlesque ! 

But Jonson could not escape the influence of his age in spite 
of the most resolute theories, and there are touches in his work 
which bear the characteristic Elizabethan accent. 
„ . , Condensed and rapid images weighty with mean- 

ing and poetry sometimes occur. Lovell in The 
New Inn^ says : 

"As it is not the mere punishment. 
But cause that makes a martyr,'* so it is not 
Fighting or dying, but the manner of it, 
Renders a man himself.'' 
Volpone, in The Fox,^ exclaims (of the disappointed would-be 
heirs): "Now their hopes Are af the gasp.'' Arruntius in 
Sejanus^ comments on a specious promise of Tiberius : 

II 279a, 349a (The Hours), 508a. Examples of Hyperbole I 65a, 72a, 78b, 
93a, 2i6a, 237a, 248b, 393b, II 58b, 349b, 376b, 379b, etc. 

'II 267b, similarly 376b; cf. II 155a. 

= Act V Sc. i (II 379b). 

3 Act IV Sc. iii (II 374b). 

'• This identical sentiment has also been attributed to Napoleon. 

sAct V Sc.i (I 38Sb). 

« Act III Sc. i (I 295b). 



BEN JONSON. 135 

" If this were true now ! but the space, the space, 
Between the breast and lips — Tiberius' heart 
Lies a thought farther than another man's."' 

Equally subtle is Catiline's sinister threatj^" on hearing of the 
decrees against him, " I will not burn Without my funeral 
pile." See also I 227b ("Never was man So left under the axe"), 
299a ("His thoughts lo(?h through his words"), I 303b ("a quiet 
and retired life, Larded with ease and pleasure "). Jonson is 
fond of condensing a metaphor into a verb, as in the last two 
examples. See also I 201b (Niobe "was /r^///^^<f</ into stone"), 
250a (poesy rammed tvith life), 309a {bogged in lust), 315b 

("croaking ravens Flagged np and down"). There 
His Epithets are also many striking epithets in Jonson: I 65a 

(sail-stretched wings), yob (grey-headed ceremo- 
nies), 107b ("this green and soggy multitude"), 140b (turtle- 
footed Peace), 11 6b ("your stabbing similes"), 138b (wrinkled 
fortunes) 149a ("your skipping tongue"; cf. 157a "your caper- 
ing humor"), 156b (muffled thought), 211a (frost-fearing myrtle), 
239a (thorny-toothed), 249b ("pathless moorish minds"), 338a 
("the furrow-faced sea"), II 107a (a sulphurous spirit), 125a 
("your cobweb bosoms"), 288b ("stall-fed doctors") 414b 
(silken phrases). 

Jonson was town-bred and by choice and temperament a realist. 
Nevertheless Nature was not a sealed book to him. There are 

touches in the Sad Shepherd and elsewhere' which 
Nature in 1 ^1 r j i- r ,• r 

Tonson show the germs of a delicate feelmg for some of 

her forms ; and his observation of nature so far as 
it went was as keen as his observation of man. Significant illus- 
trations from nature are not infrequently used : 

I 291b: "The way to put 

A prince in blood, is to present the shapes 
Of dangers greater than they are, like late 
Or early shadows." 

' Cf. Chapman, is8b. 

'Act IV Sc. iv. (II 122a). 

IE. g. I 248a ("the loving air, That closed her body in his silken arms"); 

II 317b ("A hair Large as the morning's, and her breath as sweet As meadows 
after rain, and but new mown !"); etc. 



136 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

I 362a " Turn short as doth a sivaUow.'''' 

II 300a "I shook for fear, and yet I danced for joy; 

I had such motions as the sunbeams make 
Against a wall or playing on a water.'" 

II 489a: "like the soft west wind she shot along," — and see the 
whole of the opening speech of ^glamour in the Sad Shepherd. 
Of course in his lyrics there are many such touches.^ But in 
order to determine the extent to which nature enters into Jon- 
son's habitual imagery, an inspection should be made of the 
following analysis. 

RANGE AND SOURCES OF IMAGERY. 

Mr. Swinburne^ has remarked upon "the vast range of 
Ben Jonson's interest and observation." In so far as embodied 
in metaphor and simile the most striking results of that interest 
and observation are displayed and classified in the following lists: 

NATURE. Aspect of the Sky, The Elements, etc.: The Sun: 

I 308a (fires of liberty like the sun), I 140a ("she hath 
chased all black thoughts from my bosom, Like as the sun 
doth darkness from the world). II 317b ("Yourself who 
drink my blood up with your beams, As doth the sun the 
sea!"); Sunrise I 343b (the rising sun=:the new heir), I 328a 
(" He that this morn rose proudly as the sun," etc.), cf. II 82b, 

II 8ia ("Appear and break like day, my beauty, to this circle"). 
Sunset I 370b ("Suns that set may rise again. But if once we 
lose this light, 'Tis with us perpetual night," — from Catullus), 
II 84a (" Cinna and Sylla are set and gone : and we must turn 
our eyes On him that is, and shines"); Sunshine, etc., I 24a 
("the sunshine of reputation "), II 300a ("I had such motions as 
the sunbeams make Against a wall, or playing on a water"). 

Light : II 3 (shines greater by contrast of a thick darkness), 
I 251a (shine). Shade, Shadow II 84a, 300b, 464b. 

'This simile, it is true, is borrowed from Virgil (^neid VIII 25), but is 
none the less apt for the borrowing. 

" See especially the song " Have you seen but a bright lily grow," in The 
Devil is an Ass, Act II Sc. ii (II 238a). 

3 A Study of Ben Jonson, p. 77. 



BEN JONSON. 137 

Stars: I 88b ("our court-star there, that planet of wit"); 
cf. I 237a, 349a, 249b ("Bearing the nature and similitude Of a 
right heavenly body"), I 362a ("Your fine elegant rascal, that 
can . . . Shoot through the air as nimbly as a star"), II 238a 
("Do but look on her hair, it is bright As love's star when it 
riseth ! "), II 376a (" A wise man never goes the people's way ; 
But as the planets still move contrary To the world's motion, so 
doth he to opinion "),' II 293a (" Move orderly In our own 
orbs"), I 371b ("When she came in like star-light"); Comet, 
meteor, etc.; I iioa, 247b ("for me, a falling star"), II 371b ("His 
rapier was a meteor, and he waved it Over them like acomet");=' 

Moon: I 24b ("that thought is like the moon in her last 
quarter, 'twill change shortly"), I 286a ("such a spirit as yours 
Was . . . created ... to shine Bright as the moon among the 
lesser lights"). 

Fire : I 4b (" while you affect To make a blaze of gentry to the 
world, A little puff of scorn extinguish it"), I 25b (sparks of wit), 
92a ("I am like . . . fire, that burns much wood, yet still one 
flame"), 286a (love, "like the fire which more It mounts it trem- 
bles"), II 50a (beauty to set the eyes afire), 349b (the fires of 
love, 8 11.; cf. I 357b); I 139a (the flame of humor), 277b (the 
fire of a great spirit), 310a (" the pitchy blazes of impiety," etc.), 
337b (gold that shows "like a flame by night"), 157a (phrases 
that "sparkle like salt in fire"), i68a (to throw away money like 
burning coals), 308a (like fools who puff at a dying coal), II 97a 
("Cruel, A lady is a fire; gentle, alight"); I loib (affectations = 
false fires), 72a ("Mine eyeballs, like two globes of wild-fire") ; 
Furnace I 357b (Cupid's flame rages "As in a furnace an ambi- 
tious fire. Whose vent is stopt"), II 332b (an enraged man like a 
furnace); Taper I 150b ("thy youth's dear sweets here spent 
untasted. Like a fair taper, with his own flame wasted"), II 183b 
(like a candle); Sulphur, fumes, etc., II 107a ("She has a sul- 
phurous spirit, and will take Light at a spark"), cf. 115a. 

Heat and Cold : I 17b (heat of humor); 304a (fury boils, 
heat with ambition), cf. 310a; Ice II 83a ("We are spirit-bound 

'Cf. Shirley, The Traitor I ii (Mermaid Series p. 97). 

'Cf. Chapman 147b : "D' Ambois' sword . . . Shot like a pointed comet." 



138 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

In ribs of ice"), 493b ("stand curled up like images of ice"), 
II 88b ("Sealed up and silent, as when rigid frosts Have bound 
up brooks and rivers," etc.), I 72a 

" Made my cold passion stand upon my face 
Like drops of dew on a stiff cake of ice ". 

Clouds: I 19b ("this black cloud," i.e., of suspicion), so 
135b; II 1 59a ("this the cloud that hides me," i. e., hisdisguise), cf. 
230a; II 357b (clouded brows); II 509b; I 249a (Kings "Sit in 
their height, like clouds before the sun"); Mist, Vapor, etc.; I 
19b; I 152b ("the least steam or fume of a reason"), 386b ("I 
was a little in a mist"), cf. II 127b, 108b ("Our hate is spent, 
and fumed away in vapor"). Humor I 17b, 67a, etc. 

Storms : II 333b ("the weather of your looks may change "); 
I i2ob ("The just storm of a wretched life "), II 195b ("cloud- 
like, I will break out in rain and hail, lightning and thunder, 
upon the head of enormity"); Tempest I 364b; Shower I 289a 
(shower of tears), II 349a (to shower bounties); Thunder I 287a 
("the thunder of Sejanus"), 289a ("thunder speaks not till it 
hit. Be not secure"), 418a, cf. II 6b (to thunder at), 103b, 121a 
(" He has strove to emulate this morning's thunder, With his 
prodigious rhetoric"); Lightning II 84b ("You are too full of 
lightning, noble Caius "), io8b, 371b; Hail I 366b (a hail of 
words); Winds I 311b (Sejanus, like a whirlwind), 326a, II 109b, 
i8ob, 359a (as the winds shift, so a decree may be altered), I 314b 
("Winds lose their strength, when they do empty fly. Unmet of 
woods or buildings "), II 489a ; Echo I 150b, 458a. 

Aspects of Water, The Sea, etc. Sea : I 66a (" conscience Is 
vaster than the ocean "), 431a (a sea and flood of noise); Tide I 
iioa (ebb and flow of humor), cf. II 68a, 262b ("such tides of 
business "), 282a (" The powers of one and twenty, like a tide, 
Flow in upon me"); II 317b ("my princess draws me Avith her 
looks. And hales me in, as eddies draw in boats," etc.); I 183a 
(good men, like the sea, always salt), 295b ("all my streams of 
grief are lost. No less than are land waters in the sea, Or showers 
in rivers"); Pool, Sink, etc. I 92a, II 119a, etc. Spring I 
143 (the Court the spring which waters England), II 351a ("a 
fountain of sport"); River, Stream I 92a ("I am like a pure 



BEN JONSON. 1 39 

and sprightly river, That moves forever, and yet still the same "), 
1x5b ("the stream of her humor"), 248b (the streams of poesy), 
I 1 60b (an overflowing face), 440a (youth like rivers that cannot 
be called back); Torrent II 102a ("Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er 
looks back "), I 386a, II 128b; Flood I 31a (the flood of passion), 
85a, 124a ("you shall see the very torrent of his envy break forth 
like a land-flood"), 310b, 352a, II 88b ("break Upon them like 
a deluge "), 96a. 

Aspects of the Earth : Cf. II 237b. Precipice (of sin, etc.) 

I 22b, II 259b ("My fortunes standing in this precipice"), 346b; 
Mountains I io8b (to stand "before their Maker, like impudent 
mountains"), II 113b (" the mountain of our faults"); Earth- 
quake I 431a, II 326a; Bog, quagmire I 28a ("give you oppor- 
tunity, no quicksand Devours or swallows swifter"), io8b, 309a 
(bogged in lust), II i66a; Dirt, clod, dust, etc.; I 75b ("to be 
enamoured on this dusty turf. This clod!"), 135b (dust of sus- 
picion), 162a (dust and whirlwind), so 311b, II 370b ("thou 
glorious dirt !"); Path, highway, etc., I 148a, 182a, 305b, 398a, 

II 37b, 98a (to cut a way), 401b. 

Inorganic Nature: Metals I 23b ("the metal of your minds 
Is eaten with the rust of idleness"), 183b, II 243b ("I am not 
So utterly of an ore un-to-be-melted "), 45 ib; I 28a (leaden 
sleep), 248b (leaden souls), I 157a ("Act freely, carelessly, and 
capriciously, as if our veins ran with quicksilver"), II 328a 
("Forehead of steel and mouth of brass!"); Glass I i88b; I 28a 
(as a jet draws straws); Caract' I 28a, II 223a, 395b, 401b; Salt 
I 82a, cf. 157a, 183a, 349b, 380a, II 149b, 374b, 446a. 

Time, Seasons, etc.: I 162a ("Today you shall have her look 
as clear and fresh as the morning, and tomorrow as melancholic 
as midnight"), 290a (the night of ambition), 321a ("About the 
fioon of night");" I 394a ("it is summer with you now; Your 
winter will come on "), I 95a (" look not like winter thus " ), 307b 
(" the winter of their fate "); I 393a (autumn), 4066 (" her autum- 
nal face"); II 224a ("ere your spring begone, enjoy it"), 489a 
("the world may find the Spring by following her "); I 414b ("as 

' See Gifford's note. 

*Cf. Whalley's note. 



14° METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

proud as May and humorous as April"), 11 441b ("he'll weep 
you like all April ").' 

The Vegetable World : II 120b (the weed of evil, etc.), cf. 66b, 
208b; Trees I 124a (like the chopping-down of a full-grown 
tree), 307a ("a fortune sent to exercise Your virtue, as the wind 
doth try strong trees. Who by vexation grow more sound and 
frrm"); 319b (Germanicus, "the lofty cedar of the world," 
Drusus, "that upright elm," etc. 12 11.), 383a ("that piece of 
cedar. That fine well-timbered gallant"), II 361a ("his tall And 
growing gravity, so cedar-like), 333b ; I 326a (leaves); Seeds I 
277b, II 79b (the seeds of treason), 128a, 272b, 330b; I 305a 
("greatness hath his cankers. Worms and moths Breed out of 
too much humor"); Flowers II 507b (she is the "crown and 
garland of the wood"), I 201b (roses and thorns, beauty and its 
guardians), cf. 372a; II 224a ("Flowers, Though fair, are oft but 
of one morning"), cf. 489a, II 238a (white as a lily), 505a (" His 
lip is softer, sweeter than the rose"); Blossom and fruit I 367a 
(of hope); Fruit I 349b ("All her looks are sweet As the first 
grapes or cherries"), 28a ("To taste the fruit of beauty's golden 
tree"), 252a, 277b, 371a, II loa ("A fine young quodling," 
cf. Gifford's note), II 149b (the garden and fruits of beauty), cf. 
230b; II 327a (" Hang him, an austere grape," etc.); I 290b (" Let 
him grow awhile. His fate is not yet ripe"), 349a; I 407a (a well- 
dressed woman is "like a delicate garden"), II 416b ("France, 
that garden of humanity, The very seed-plot of all courtesies"); 
I 117a ("O, that such muddy flags . . . should achieve The name 
of manhood"); Mushroom I 75b, 419b, II 417a, etc. 

The Animal World is used in Jonson largely to supply oppro- 
brious epithets. Beasts I 24b, 283a ("Of all wild beasts preserve 
me from a tyrant"), I 398b ("Mischiefs feed Like beasts till they 
be fat, and then they bleed"), II 114a, 128b, 174b; Animal I 
171b, II 376a; Vermin II 152b, 279b, 426b; To hatch II 27a 
("hatch gold in a furnace . . . As they do eggs in Egypt!"), 280b, 
459a. Fish: Sponge I 68a (spongy souls), 324a ("how the 
sponges open and take in. And shut again!"); I 209b (" How- 
e'er that common spawn of ignorance, Our fry of writers, may 

' Cf. Ant. and Cleop., Ill ii 43 " The April's in her eyes." 



BEN JONSON. 141 

beslime his faiue"), II 309a ("as dumb as a fish"); Shark I 64, 
254b, 443a, II 9b; Whale I 77b ("like a boisterous whale swallow- 
ing the poor, Still swim in wealth and pleasure"), II 167a 
("they'll kill the poor whale and make oil of her!"); Porpoise I 
326b (cf. Gifford's note), 443a; Flounder I 103a; Pike II 332a; 
Carp I i88b; Smelt I i6ia; Rochet I 369a; I 164a ("they are all 
... no better than a few trouts cast ashore, or a dish of eels in a 
sand-bag"). 

Reptiles: Crocodile I 133b, 292b, 461a; Serpent I 76b, 78b, 
289b (rear Their forces, like seen snakes, that else would lie Rolled 
in their circles, close"), II 122b; Viper I io6b, 300a, II 298b, 
422b; I 361b ("I could skip Out of my skin now, like a subtle 
snake"), II 105a ("their snaky ways," etc.); II 83a (tortoise speed); 
Cameleon I 383b, II 304a. Snail I 275a ("We have . . . No soft 
and glutinous bodies that can stick, Like snails on painted walls "). 

Insects: 1462a ("Take heed of such insectse hereafter"); 
Flies I 172b ("all the gallants came about you like flies"), 315b, 
394a, 414b, II 83a, 125b, 156a, 227b ("blow them off again. Like so 
many dead flies"), II 342a, 431a, II 238a ("At this window She 
shall no more be buzzed at"), I 226b ("This brize has pricked 
my patience") Flyblown II 275b, 353a; Bees I 350a, II 41a ("till 
he be tame As . . . bees are with a besom"), 505a; Drone II 
348b; Swarm I 35b, II 320a; Wasps II 448b; Hornets I 265b, 
266b; Sting II 264a; Butterflies I 154a; Grasshoppers I 266b 
("like so many screaming grasshoppers Held by the wings, fill 
every ear with noise;" — so 364b, where see Gifford's note; also 
II 406b), II i6ob ("your grasshopper's thighs"), 332a ("he will 
live like a grasshopper On dew"); Locust I 369b; Beetle II 6b 
(scarab), I 246a (" They are the moths and scarabs of a state "); I 
49b, 183a (dor); Moth I 246a, 461b, II 324a; Gnats I 328a ("They 
that . . . like gnats, played in his beams "); Ants I 45b ("they will 
be doing with the pismire, raising a hill a man may spurn abroad 
with his foot at pleasure "), 145a (Emmetj; Earwig I 458b; Cater- 
pillar I io6b; Worm II 233a, II 329a ("your worming brain"); 
Silkworm II 148b (" to spin out these fine things still, and, like a 
silkworm, out of myself"), so 281b; Cobweb I i68b, 251a, 294a, 
II 6b, 125b. 



142 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Birds (cf. also Hawking p. 148 infra): I 149a (" your hooked 
talons"), 364a (bird-eyed), \\ -] 2a. {;;' Mammon. The whole nest 
are fled! Lovcwit. What sort of birds were they?" etc.), 238b, 
226a (bird and cage; so 379b), 332b (" the whole covey is scat- 
tered;" cf. 409b); Birds of Prey I 342a, II 295b; Wildfowl II 
67a; Eagle I 247a ("Virtue, whose brave eagle's wings. With 
every stroke blow stars in burning heaven"), cf. II 19b; Vulture 
I 237b ("to be tired on by yond vulture"), 259b, 308a II 329a; 
Kestrel II 293a; Hawk II 332b, 279b ("like a tame hernsew "), 
164b (goshawk); Rook I 67a, 72a, 425b; Jackdaw I 190b; Raven 

I 283a; Crow I 428b, II 95a, 403b; Buzzard II 355a; Owl I 428b, 

II loob, 342b; Screech owl II 122a, 364b: Peacock II 337 (cock- 
brained): Dove I 428b, II 73b, 379b, 495a; Lapwing I 246a, 
325a, II 309a; Partridge I 382b; 11 185a ("Was there ever green 
plover so pulled!"); II 52a (" a delicate dabchick "); Cuckoo I 
461b; Sparrow II 333a; Wren I 145b; Goldfinch I i8oa; Swallow 

I 247a (" that virtue .... Should, like a swallow, preying 
towards storms, Fly close to earth, and with an eager plume, Pur- 
sue those objects which none else can see," etc.), 362a ("Turn 
short as doth a swallow "). 

Wild Animals: II 514b (To affect meekness among ene- 
mies is "As if with lions. Bears, tigers, wolves, and all those 
beasts of prey, He would affect to be a sheep ! ") ; Lion I 304b, 

II 139b ("ran . . . Into our battle, like a Libyan lion Upon his 
hunters"), II 53b; Bear II 332a ("he will live like ... a bear, 
with licking his own claws"); Hyena I 383b; Wolf I 246a, 290a 
(Sir, wolves do change their hair, but not their hearts"), 298a, 
299b ("Excellent wolf! Now he is full, he howls"), 310b, 387a, 
398a; Fox I 23b, 325b II 395b ("your fox [i. e. your sword] 
there. Unkennelled with a choleric, ghastly aspect, . . . Would 
run their fears to any hole of shelter"); Buffalo I 380b; Rhi- 
noceros I 152a; Camel I 24b, 67b (They, "like galled camels, 
kick at every touch"), 285a; Monkey, Ape, etc. I 40b, 209b, 
363b, II 240b; Marmoset I i68a, 171b; Baboon I 189a, 443b, 
II 9b; Polecat II 26a, 165b, (cf. 446b); Mammet II 73b; Stote 
II 446b ; Squirrel I 80a (" they'll leap from one thing to another 
like a squirrel"); Mole I 195a, 419b; Bat II 363b; Mouse II 



BEN JONSON. M3 

33a (dormice), 348b, 342b (reremice), 363b; Rat II 291a, 
328b, I 283a (courtiers = palace-rats; so II 324a); Cormorant I 
124b. 

Domestic Animals: Cat I 318b, II 122b, 329b ("She is 
cat-lived and squirrel-limbed"); Goat I 358b (" goatish eyes"); 
Swine I 114b, II i66a (sow); Sheep I 59a, II 155a (cosset), 164b 
(lamb), 442b (bellwether), 486 (wool from English flocks); Cattle 
I 164a ("all the ladies and gallants lie languishing upon the 
rushes, like so many pounded cattle in the midst of harvest"), I 
246a (bellow), 421a (heifer), 453b (ox), II 380a, 318a (" He's chew- 
ing his muses' cud "), II 453^ (calf) ; Cream II 369b ; Milk I 342b, 
432a, II 53b, 327b; Yoke II 85b, 113b; Ass I 225a, 253b, II 
i8oa, 224b, 327a; Mule I 394a, II 295b; Horses and horseman- 
ship (see in general the part of Knockem in Barth. Fair): I 440a 
{"What a neighing hobby-horse is this ! ") 32b ("have translated 
begging out of the old hackney-pace to a fine easy amble"), II 
262b (gallop), I 65a ("check his spirit, or rein his tongue"), 302a 
(reins), 335 (snaffle); I 91b (husbands to treat their wives like 
their horses), 112a ("his head hangs so heavily over a woman's 
manger"), 148b ("as tender as the foot of a foundered nag"), 
171b (a swaggering coach-horse, etc.), 215a ("jaded wits that run 
a broken pace for common hire," etc.), Stallion I 436b, II 167b, 
II 206b ("hinnying sophistry"), 169b ("a dull malt-horse"), 
235b (harnessed), 469b (weary as a mill-horse); Spur II 9b; 
Dogs I 90b ("that dog called chance"), II 449^, I 72a (the belly 
barks), 167a (" Traduce by custom as most dogs do bar^ "), 258b 
(" buffoon barking wits "), II 8b (" Leave off your barking "), II 
321a (kennel); Mongrel, cur, etc. I 76a, 76b, 134a, 189b, 312a, 
II 5b ; Beagles I 1 28a, II 430a ; I 7b (" Like to the eager but the 
generous greyhound, Who ne'er so little from his game withheld, 
Turns head and leaps at his holder's throat "), I 62a (Carlo Buf- 
fone is "a good feast-hound, or banquet-beagle, that will scent 
you out a supper some three miles off"), 1 15a ("a good blood- 
hound, a close-mouthed dog, he follows the scent well"), 300a 
("Two of Sejanus' bloodhounds, whom he breeds With human 
flesh, to bay at citizens"); Ban-dogs I 86a, 228b; Mastiffs I 
329a ("like so many mastiffs, biting stones"), II 9a. 



144 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Fabulous Natural History: Adamant I 93a, II 49b; x^conite 
I 304a; I 276a ("true as turquoise in the dear lord's ring, Look 
well or ill with him"); Phoenix II 48b ("To burn in this sweet 
flame [of love]; The phoenix never knew a nobler death"), so 
349b; Salamander I iioa; Basilisk I 209a, 394a; Cockatrice 
I 76a, II 346b; I 244a ("a panther whose unnatural eyes Will 
strike thee dead "), 372a (panther's breath; so I 192b); Crocodile's 
tears I 369b, II 377a; II 19b ("renew him, like an eagle"); 
Unicorn's horn I 133a (cf. 372a); II 107a ("A serpent, ere he 
comes to be a dragon, Does eat a bat;" cf. Gifford's note), 212 
("must all run into one, Like the young adders, at the old one's 
mouth!") I 227b ("I am seized on here By a land remora ; I 
cannot stir"), so II 403b. 

MAN AND HUMAN LIFE: I 357a (Life a pilgrimage). 

The Arts and Learning: I 372b ("to score up sums of pleas- 
ure"); II 257a ("hell is A grammar-school to this"), Grammar 
and logic II 51b, 52a ("the grammar and logic And rhetoric of 
quarrelling"), 375a (" Most manly uttered all! As if Achilles 
had the chair in valor. And Hercules were but a lecturer"), 396a 
(grammarians' souls are nought but a syntaxis of words); I 199a 
(" like a circle bounded in itself"), II 353b ("I fear a taint here 
in the mathematics. They say lines parallel do never meet ; He 
has met his parallel in wit and Schoolcraft "),' 508b (" Why do 
you so survey and circumscribe me, As if you stuck one eye into 
my breast, And with the other took my whole dimensions?"). 
Burning glass II 50a. Books and printing I 93b (a fashion "of 
the last edition"), 96a ("a whole volume of humor, and worthy 
the unclasping"), i6ia ("all his behaviors are printed, his face is 
another volume of essays"), 323a, II 373a ("A printed book 
without a blot"); I 109a (tobacco taken as a parenthesis); II 
344a (degiee at Tyburn, laureate, etc.), II 377b (to read and 
decipher). 

Music: I 48a (musicians); II 375a (music); In tune, har- 
mony, etc. I 70b, I iT8a, 195b, 2i6a, 386a, II 261a, 343b; To 
play on I 27a, 70b; Chime II 35fcb, 355a; To run division 
I iioa; II 267a ("You had some strain 'Bove e-la? "), I 430a 

' Cf. Hazlitt's Dodsley, V 335. 



BEN JONSON. 145 

(barber's citterns); I 25a (" my wind-instruments"), I 70b ("yond 
sackbut"), 159a (sackbut); Music of the spheres I 151, II 508a. 

Painting and Sculpture: I 65a ("my soul Was never 
ground into such oily colors To flatter vice and daub iniquity"), 
I 1 88a (to play the painter), 289b ("darkly set As shadows are in 
pictures, to give height And lustre to themselves "), I 248b ("hol- 
low statues which the best men are"), I 407b (the city statues). 

Law: I 215b ("There's ... A supersedeas to your melan- 
choly "), 2 1 6a (" Julia's love Shall be a law," etc.), 444a (" take the 
mortgage of my wit "), II 1 2b (assumpsit), 342a (libel), 328b (con- 
science=a thousand witnesses); Seal I 197a ("Thy presence 
broad-seals our delights "), II 85a, 225a ; I 372b (" that unhappy 
crime of nature, Which you miscall my beauty "); Rack and tor- 
ture I 67a, 321b, II 196a. 

Government, etc. I 453a (" the kingdom or commonwealth 
of ladies' affections"); I 373a (rebellion of the blood); State 

I 195b, Empire II 243b. 

Medical : I 395b (" he must now Help to sear up this vein, or 
we bleed dead"), II 374a (remedy), 495a (dose); Medicine, physic, 
etc. I 387b, II 4b, 37a, 254a, I 67b ("all physic of the mind"), 
219b, 282a, 345b, II 493a, I 68b (pills), 78a, 122a (drug); Cure I 
71b, II 4b, 377b ; Purge I 68b, II loib (" to purge sick Rome "), 
295a; Diseases and Wounds I 338a (wound), so 71b, 441a, II 
86a, 95a, 413a, I 220a (to search a wound), so II 490b, II 268b 
(" a scar upon our names "); II 176a (to be infected with the dis- 
ease of poetry), I 222a, 258b, 344b, II 374a; 1 19b (like a pestilence), 

II 105a (sickness); Fever I 227b, 364a, 398a ("These possess 
wealth as sick men possess fevers "), II 120b; Ulcers I 202b, 
II 324a; Leprosy I 66b (" Plagued with an itching leprosy of 
wit ;" cf. 156b), 262a; I 123b (" his disease is nothing but the flux 
of apparel"); Itch I 414a, 418b ; I 202a (medicines, maladies, 
etc.); Physician and patient I 68b, 167a; Infect I 19b, II 176a, 
324a; Anatomy I 115a, 67b, 98a; Horse-leech I 239b, 311b, II 
162b, 289b. 

Various Estates and Occupations: I iiib ("he's like the zany 
to a tumbler"); Slave I 246b, 276b, II 84b, I 320a (captive); 
Rebel II 102a; Thief I 197a, II 94a; Picklock II i8oa, 410a ^ 



146 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Usher I 242b ; Rabbi II 368b ; Heirs II 84a ; Prodigals II 127a ; 
Barber I 425a; II 374b (Patience, magnanimity, etc., are the 
waiting-maids of valor);' II 504b (the nightingale = the angel^ 
i. e. messenger of spring — from Sappho); II 173b (husbandman, 
pilot, shepherd, constable, etc.); I 407b ("gilders will not work, 
but inclosed "); II 94a (beauty locked up " Like a fool's treasure"); 
1 1 8a (" The shop and mint of your conspiracy "); 469b (" We are 
like men that wander in strange woods "). 

Trades and Practical Arts : II 107b ("I'll trust you with the 
stuff you have to work on ; You'll form it"). 

Merchants, Trade, etc.: I 4b ("Oft sells his reputation at 
cheap market"), 51b ("have I forstalled your honest market?"), 
419b ("Was there ever such a two yards of knighthood measured 
out by time, to be sold to laughter?"); Buy I 156a, II 115b; II 
247a (to put out to use); II 392a (" the poetic shop"), ii8a; II 
422a ("a wife Which since is proved a cracked commodity; She 
hath broke bulk too soon"). 

Building: I 19b ("The houses of the brain "j;^ 284a 
("Temples and statues, reared in your minds "); To build II 48b, 
80a, 113b; II 8ia ("He that, building, stays at one Floor, or 
the second, hath erected none "), 83b (" the porch of life "), 366a 
(simile of the traveler and the palace — 6 11.), 393b (the portal or 
entry, " according to Vitruvius "); loia (a bridge of " the heads 
Of men struck down like piles"), 129b (the bridge of state); 
Hinge I 397a ("All's on the hinge "), 424b, II 54a, 114b. Well- 
timbered I 71a (" a well- timbered fellow, he would have made a 
good column, an he had been thought on, when the house was 
a building "), 155b, 383a ; Cabinet I 281a, II 401b ; Closet II 471a 
(" ope the closet Of his devices "). Weaving : I 32b (" a weaver 
of language "), 294a (" Their faces run like shittles ; they are 
weaving Some curious cobweb to catch flies"), 304a ("thou art 
.. . . Woven in our design"), II 501a (" I hae that wark in hand. 
That web upon the luime"); Spin II 418a. The Potter's Art 
II 427b ; Metal WoRk II 258b (" inelt, cast, and form her," cf. 
II 87a); Forge I 132a, 293b, 303b, II 423a ; I 36a ("hammering 

'Cf. Lyly, II 176. 

*Cf. the Fairy Queen, II ix, — The House of Alma. 



BEN JONSON. 147 

revenge"); Mink. I 450a, cf. 362b ; Dyeing I 22a (" This dye [of 
sin] goes deeper than the coat, Or shirt, or skin," etc.); I 44b 
(" make grist of you "). 

Agriculture: Harvest I 349a ("a beauty ripe as harvest"); 
Crop I 380b, II 93a ; Sow and Reap II 299a (" My man of law 
. . . sows all my strifes, And reaps them too "), 328a, 97a (to sow 
and reap kisses), so 238a ("plant and gather kisses"); 1436a 
(" be like a barren field that yields little"), 440a, 386b (a fruitful 
glebe); II 247b ; II 226a (" I lie fallow "), 281a ; II 472a (" I am 
not for your mowing"), I 445b (" to mow you off at the knees "), 
II 109b ("all else cut off As . . . mowers A field of thistles ; or 
else up, as plows do barren lands, and strike together flints And 
clods, th' ungrateful senate and the people"); 173b ("The 
husbandman ought not, for one unthankful year, to forsake the 
plough"); II 241b (" Our shop-books are our pastures, our corn- 
grounds"); II 227a ("I have considered you As a fit stock to 
graft honors upon"); I 338a (simile of the thresher — from 
Horace); Furrows I 338a. 

Ships and Sailors: Ship of State II 97b, 99a (10 11.), 128a; 
II 277 ("steer the souls of men As with a rudder"); I 68b 
("bear this peremptory sail"), 71a ("when his belly is well 
ballaced, and his brain rigged a little, he sails away withal"), 76a 
("to sink this hulk of ignorance"), cf. 96b, 230b ; I 4b (" Not 
that your sail be bigger than your boat ; But moderate your 
expenses"); To sail II 184b ("he comes down sailing that way all 
alone "), 222b, 232b ; II 107a ("wings as large as sails "); II 300a 
(" She is not rigged, sir ; setting forth some lady Will cost as 
much as furnishing a fleet. Here she is come at last, and like a 
galley. Gilt in the prow"), 372b (" Let his wife be stript. Blow 
off her upper deck. Tear all her tackle "), cf. 404a ; II 509b 
(" You must be wary, and pull in your sails "), 379a (" She is set 
forth in't, rigged for some employment .... 'Tis a fine tack 
about ?"); II 120b (" shipwrecked minds "); II 423b (" I have run 
my bark On a sweet rock . . . And must get off again, or dash 
in pieces "); Pilot II 173b (" the pilot ought not, for one leak in 
the poop, to quit the helm"), 510a; Embark II 103b, 260a; I 
103a (" He may hap lose his tide "). 



148 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Sports, Amusements, etc.: Games, etc. I 112a ("like a pawn 
at chess; [he] fills up a room"); Primero I 165a, 367a II 
261a; Gambling I 393a, 436a, II 261b; Dice II 138a, 149a; 
Cards II 183b, i66b, 302b (" like the knave of clubs"), 316a, 
344b (the world like a game of cards, 5 11.); II 237b (a well- 
torned chin, like a billiard ball); I 455a (jugglers); Leap-frog II 
149a; Wrestling II 190b; Tennis II 316a; Level coil II 461a 
(cf. Gifford's note); Angling II 31b ("Has he bit ? . . . And 
swallowed too ... I have given him line, and now he plays," 
etc.), 326a, 428b ; Bait and Hook I 238b, 292a, 346b, 310b, II 
306b, 471a, 171b. Hunting, etc. (cf. "Dogs," above p. 143) I 
19a (" She has me in the wind "), so 292a ; II 150b (" Have you 
ta'en soil here ?"); I 292a ("They hunt. There is some game here 
lodged," etc.), II 303b ("You hunt upon a wrong scent still"), 
455b ("to hunt counter thus, and make these doubles"); To 
decoy, to stalk, etc. I 302a, II 231b ; I 27b (tracking hares), II 
26a (snaring hares), 469b ; To lime twigs I 190b, II 187b ; I 22b 
("lam fleshed now"), so 384b; Hawking and Falconry I 
443b (to hawk at), II 355b ; Seeled II 84b, 95a ; To stoop at, to 
souse II 73b, 261a (" I think I soused him, And ravished her 
away out of his pounces "), 371b (" every stoop he made Was like 
an eagle's at a flight of cranes"), 440b ; To fly to mark, to fly at, 
II 179b, 304b, 342b, 361a, 376b, 413a, 514a. 

Domestic Life : Nurse II 34b ("deal like a rough nurse, and 
fright Those that are froward, to an appetite"), 120b, 154b; II 
286a ("it shows Wit had married Order"); II 375b ("like chil- 
dren We are made afraid with vizors"); Relationship II 407b 
("My monies are my blood, my parents, kindred"); Child or 
Infant I 334, II 341a (brain-child); Daughter 11477b; Mother I 
363b (" Admit your fool's face be the mother of laughter "), II 
103b, 104a, 105a; Step-dame II 48b (Nature a step-dame). Sob, 
87b; Father II 318b; Dowry I 409b ("her silence is dowry 
enough "), 421a, 441a, II 383b; Wean I 3a, 175b. 

Dress and Ornament : I 88b (" she speaks as she goes tired, 
in cobweb-lawn, light, thin"), 198b (folds, plaits, etc.), 165b (a 
grogran rascal); II 394b ("a good play is like a skein of silk," 
etc.), cf. 373a, 328a ("the unwinding this so knotted skein "); II 



BEN JON SON. 1 4 9 

344b ("To be wrapt soft and warm in fortune's smock "); I 170b 
(to embroider discourse); Apparel I 170b; To clothe I 151b ("I 
have but one poor thought to clothe In airy garments"), 156b 
(muffled thought); Fustian I 70b, 99a, 144b, 147b; To truss 
points I 184a (" trussing all the points of this action "), 190b; Cos- 
metics and toilet I 148b; Mask, vizor, etc. I 290a, 381b, 418a, II 
38b. Toob, 375b, 377b; Veil I 195a, 246b; Rags I 335, 11 194a, 
349b ("Be still that rag of love You are; burn on till you turn 
tinder "), 415b (clouts); Starched I 73a, i68a; Strait-laced II 156b. 

Jewels, Gems, etc. I 15b, 69a, 125a, 216a, 222b, 453b, II 
401a ("A chrysolite, a gem, the very agate Of state and policy, 
cut from the quar Of Machiavel," etc.), 454a; Brooch I 2 1 3b, so II 
310b, 256a; Foil, Lustre, etc., I 28a, 305b, 453b. 

Colloquial and Familiar Images are very frequent in Jonson's 
comedies. The most noteworthy are as follows: I 4b ("to be 
left like an unsavory snuff "), 9b (" this man ! so graced, gilded, 
or, to use a more fit metaphor, so tin-foiled by nature," etc.), 27a 
(Stephen is like a drum or child's whistle, "every one may play 
upon him "), 32b (" made it run as smooth off the tongue as a 
shove-groat shilling "),' 42b ("it vanished away like the smoke 
of tobacco"), 54a (like an artichoke), 68a (" now and then breaks 
a dry biscuit jest," etc.), cf. 130a (" like a dry crust "), 72b (" I 
am like your tailor's needle "), 73a (" look with a good starched 
face, and ruffle your brow like a new boot "), 76a (" he looks like 
a musty bottle new wickered, his head's the cork, light, light ! " — 
cf. 147b), 79b (" He looks like . . . one of these motions [puppets] 
in a great antique clock ") ; 80a (" will run over a bog like your wild 
Irish"); 82a ("he looks like a fresh salmon kept in a tub; he'll 
be spent shortly "), 82b (" When he is mounted he looks like the 
sign of the George "),' 84b ("as it he went in a frame or had a suit 
of wainscot on "), 90a (" the actors come in one by one, as if they 
were dropt down with a feather into the eye of the spectators "), 
114b ("holding his snout up like a sow under an apple tree "),3 
115a ("he walks up and down like a charged musket"), 132b 

'Cf. //. Henry IV, 11 iv 182. 
^Cf. Chapman, 83a. 
3Cf. Greene, 169a. 



15° METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

(" lean ribs . . . like ragged laths "), 133b (" he looks like an image 
carved out of box, full of knots; his face is, for all the world, like 
a Dutch purse, with the mouth downward, his beard the tassels "), 
i6ia("He speaks all cream skimmed" . . . "He is no great 
shifter; once a year his apparel is ready to revolt"), 157b (a 
crowd greater " than come to the launching of some three ships "), 
i6ib (" His eyes and his raiment confer much together as he goes 
in the street. He treads nicely like the fellow that walks upon 
ropes "), i68b ('• Then walks off melancholic, and stands wreathed. 
As he were pinned up to the arras"), 172a (" there's one speaks 
in a key, like the opening of some justice's gate, or a postboy's 
horn"), 172a (a face like a sea-monster), 172b ("His face is like a 
squeezed orange "), 195a (" What mere gilt blocks You are "), 225a 
("jests As hard as stones") 236b ("you shall have kisses from 
them, go pit-pat, pit-pat, pit-pat, upon your lips, as thick as stones 
out of slings at the assault of a city "), 283a (" he permits himself 
Be carried like a pitcher by the ears, To every act of vice "), 338a 
("swallow A melting heir as glibly as your Dutch Will pills of 
butter "), 342b (" I have milked their hopes "), 357a (" seats your 
teeth, did they dance like virginal jacks");' 366b ("The bells in 
time of pestilence, ne'er made Like noise"), 379b ("your husband 
told me you were fair. And so you are; only your nose inclines, That 
side that's next the sun, to the queen-apple "), 393a ("some would 
swell now, like a wine-fat. With such an autumn "), 396b (" his 
eyes are^set. Like a dead hare's hung in a poulter's shop"), 438a 
(" She takes herself asunder still when she goes to bed, into some 
twenty boxes; and about next day noon is put together again, 
like a great German clock," etc.), 441b (" labor not to stop her. 
She is like a conduit pipe, that will gush out with more force 
when she opens again"), cf. 23b. Vol. H pp. 12a ("spit out 
secrets like hot custard "), 40b (" six great slops Bigger than three 
Dutch hoys "), 46a ("What shall we do with this same puffin here 
Now he's on the spit ?"), 53a (" He looks in that deep ruff like a 
head in a platter," etc.), 122b (to ring hollow), 169a (a loud voice 
like the " mouth of a peck "), i66b (" Every rib of them is like the 
tooth of a saw" cf. I 132b), 205b ("I have gaped as the oyster 

'Cf. Chapman, 124a. 



BEN JONSON. I 5 I 

for, the tide"),' 238b ("Away, you broker's block, you prop- 
erty ! "), 255a (" keeps the skin . . . ever bright and smooth As any 
looking-glass "), 255b (" I saw in the court of Spain once, A lady 
fall in the king's sight along. And there she lay, flat spread, as an 
umbrella"), 257a ("laugh as loud as a larum "), 283b ("there 
the molten silver Runs out like cream on cakes of gold, And 
rubies do grow like strawberries"), 300b ("Thy beard is like a • 
broom "), 304a (" I move upon my axle like a turnpike "), 308a 
(" There is a ninepence, I will shed no more "), 329^0' I shall see 
you quoited Over the bar, as bargemen do their billets"), 332a 
(" as thin as a lanthorn, we shall see through him "), 342b (" He 
prates Latin An it were a parrot or a play boy "), 353b (" Spins 
like the parish top"), cf. 463b; 379a (clothes that fit "Like a 
caparison for a sow "), 380a (" Sheelee-nien Thomas Runs like a 
heifer bitten with the brize "), 406b (" I find where your shoe 
wrings you "), 408a (" Wealth . . . makes a trade to take the wall of 
virtue ");= see also I 48a, 71a, 159a, 164a, i66a, 425a, H 38b, 
151b, i6ob, i6ib i66b, 179a, 183b, i88a, 276b, 293b, 300, 318a, 
343a, 345b, 373a, 444b, 463b, 474b, 498b, etc. I 6b (batch), 393a 
(leaven), II 117b. 

Note also the Puritan cant of Ananias, Tribulation, etc., e. g. 
II 71b, 150 f., 181, etc., passim. 

Coarse and Repulsive Images are frequent in Ben Jonson as in 
Chapman. 

Metaphors of Birth and the like : I 44a, 75a, 104b, 128a, 
150a, 171a, 174b, 200a, 292b, II 84a, 223b, 276a, 464b. Sim- 
ilarly I 31a, 341b, 389b, II 183a; I i8ib, 283a, II 276a, 286b; I 
407a (the adulteries of art); II 215a, 344a; 325a. 

Bawd, strumpet, etc., I 76a, II 85b, 285b; I 156b, II 226b; 
316a (" That money-bawd "), Fortune a bawd I 76b, II 355b, 455a. 
In general see also : I 265b (garbage), 282b (slime); Dung- 
hill, etc., I 23a, 78b, io6b, 249b, 265b, 312b, II 27b, 323b; I 
io8a ("rincehiscammygutsinbeer"),II i lob (dregs), 1 140a (the 

'Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher Bondiua I ii : 

" Did I not find thee gaping like an oyster 
For a new tide ? " 

' Cf. Lyly I 69. 



152 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

London sewer), 212a (" blow your ears with these untrue reports), 
236b (ears furred with the breath of compliments), 445b ("that 
sword hath spawned such a dagger "), II 24b ("somewhat costive 
of belief; " so 295a); 409a (bugs); see also I 348b, II 21a, 37a, 
151b, 245b, 281a, 316a. See also various passages of billingsgate 
and opprobrious epithets, passim, e. g. I 75b, 76, io6b, 130b, 
145, 214a, 382b, II 6ia, 296b, 353b, 381a, etc. 

The Body, its Parts, Functions, and Attributes : Bosom I 77b 
("lies he hid Within the wrinkled bosom of the world"), cf. II 
508a ("in the lap of listening nature"); I 280a (the heart and 
face of his designs); II 120b ("veins and bowels of the state"); 
II 279a ("Thy pulse hath beat enough" [to his watch]); Womb 
II 302a; Bowels, etc. I 140a ("The hallowed bowels of the silver 
Thames"), II Sob, 86a, 100a (to stomach), 120b; Head II 136a; 
Eye I 317b, 412a (London the eye of England); Face I 280a, 
288a; Finger I 418b ("Fortune had not a finger in't"); Throat 
I 438b (the brazen throat of a trumpet); Sinews II 97b; Ribs II 
83a (of ice), 86a; Wrinkle I 77b, 149b; Hug II 367b (to hug 
time); Kiss I 237a ("kiss heaven with their titles"), II 507b; 
Lame I 165a; Sleep II 105a, 369b. 

The Senses and Appetites: II 508b ("the touches or soft 
strokes of reason"), cf. I 277a, Tickle I 109b, 289a; Scents, 
Odors, etc. I 298a, 313a, 384a, 386a, II 152a; Food and Taste 
I 23a, 83b (the syrup of the jest), 237b (sugared), 172b ("The very 
march-pane of the court"), 44b, 71b, 145b, 147a, 151a, 150b, 
(hunger), II 283b (strawberries, cakes and cream), 340; I 387b 
("a rare meal of laughter"), 404a; Feast, Banquet, etc. I 300a, 
390a, 420b, II 9b, 359a, 367a, 515a; Diet II 345b; Batten I 
347a, II 464a (fatted); Surfeit, glut, etc. I 91b, 250b, 289b, II 
367a; Eat II 89b, 109b, I 459b (to eat one's words); Digest I 
258b; Vomit I 159b, 246a, II 8a; Thirst I 151a, 289b; Drink I 
71a; Spice and seasoning II 374b (salt and its savor), I 244b, 
318b, 398b, II 344a, 374b. 

Subjective Life, Religion, etc. Heaven I 173a, 370a; Purga- 
tory I 433b; Hell I 173a, 363b, II 280a; Devil I ii6b, i88b, 
389a; Spirits, to haunt, etc. I 38a (they haunt him like spirits), 
looa ("his familiar that haunts him"), 147a; Conjuring, witch- 



BEN JONSON. 153 

craft, etc. I 94b ("your good face is the witch and your apparel 
the spells, that bring all the pleasures of the world into their 
circle"), 179a, 246b : 

"As in a circle, a magician then 
Is safe against the spirit he excites ; 
But, out of it, is subject to his rage, 
And loseth all the virtue of his art : 
So I, exiled the circle of the court. 
Lose all the good gifts that in it I 'joyed," 

cf. 248a, 359a, II 41b, 223b, 282a, II 348b ("Stalk like a ghost, 
that haunted 'bout a treasure"), 509b; Superstitions I 138a 
("has the wolf seen you"), II 19a (fire-drake), 347b (fern-seed) ; 
Fairy-lore I 140b, 149a (charm), 454a, II 448b ("Dance o'er the 
fields like faies"); Incubus II i6ia; Prodigy I 227b; Alchemy 
(cf. The Alchemist, passim) I 72b, 95a ("play the alchemist"), II 
6b (projection), 366b; Perspective Glass, etc. II 212, 237b, 
(cf. 341b); Influence of the Stars I 213a, 410a, II 317a. 
Religion, etc. II 376a: 

"There's nought so sacred with us but may find 
A sacrilegious person, yet the thing is 
No less divine, 'cause the profane can reach it." . . . 

"They that do pull down churches, and deface 
The holiest altars, cannot hurt the Godhead." 

II 367a (" Where have I lived in heresy so long Out of the 
congregation of love, And stood irregular by all his canons ?"), 
II 361b (horses = " poor dumb Christians"), II 379a (hallowed), 
II 411a ("a recusant In sack"); cf. 412a, II 422b (Eve and the 
Apple); Heresy I 25b ("self-love burnt for her heresy"), 435a, 
II 229b, 367a; I 31b ("martyrs o' the girdiron"); Sacrilege I 
195b; Sacrifice I 279b; Shrine I 337a; Altar and Idol I 373a, 
II 38b, 55b, 373b; Miracle I 370a, II 50a; Oracle II 295b, 376a, 
406a; Saint I 337, II 220b; Soul I 337a. 

Death, the Grave, etc. Death I 388b ("Now their hopes 
Are at the gasp"); Buried I 30b, 334, 249b ("this grave of 
sin"), 306b, 338a (coffin), II 383a (coffined); I 375a (sepulchre), 
391b ("the funeral of your notes"); I 156b ("Floats, like a dead 
drowned body, on the stream Of vulgar humour"), II 122a {Cat- 
iline — "I will not burn Without my funeral pile"). 



154 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

War: cf. II 317a. See the parts of Bobadil, Captain Tucca, 
etc. passim. Siege, Fort, etc. I 201b ("thorns lie in garrison 
about the roses"), 236b, 282b, II 282b, 283a; II 94a (artillery), 
126b ("the train hath taken"); Civil War II 6b, 139a; II 41a 
(entrenched), 156b ("suffer not the enemy to enter you"), 376a 
("He is shot-free in battle is not hurt, Not he that is not hit"); 

I 128b ("at the tilt of all the court-wits"); I i8b ("such strong 
motives muster and make head"), 24a ("faces about to some 
other discourse"), 76a ("you should have turned your broadside 
... to sink this hulk of ignorance . . . "), 76a ("his spirit is like 
powder, quick, violent ; I fear him worse than a rotten wall does 
the cannon — shake an hour after at the report"); Arms, etc. I 
I3ib-i32a ("three of our ordnance are burst," etc.), 313b 
(armed), 253a; I i49a-b (a duel of wit). Heraldry I 162a 
("What, lay color upon color! that affords but an ill blazon"). 
Archery, etc. II 350b ("shoot bolts and sentences To affright 
babies with !"), I io8b ("her brain's a very quiver of jests," etc.); 
213a, 362a, II 333b, 359a; I 162a (to dart). 

The Stage and the Drama : Tragedy I 74b, 240a, 312a, II 58b; 
Motion or Puppet Show I 68a, 156b, 234b ("What's he . . . that 
salutes us out of his cloak, like a motion, ha?"), 255a, cf. 79b, 

II 12b, 460b; I 444a ("here will I act such a tragi-comedy " . . . 
etc.); I 296b ("The curtain's drawing"); Epilogue I 358a; Pro- 
logue I 1 68a (" repeats. Like an imperfect prologue, at third music 
His part of speeches " . . .), II 171a (" We had wonderful ill luck, to 
miss this prologue o' the purse ; but the best is, we shall have 
five acts of him ere night"); I 366b (noisy as the Cockpit); II 
376b ("how like A court removing, or an ended play. Shews my 
abrupt, precipitate estate"); II 379a ("like a noble poet, to have 
had My last act best");' II 43b ("You shall have your ordinaries 
bid for him As play-houses for a poet"); II 82a ("be thrown by, 
or let fall, As is a veil put off, a visor changed. Or the scene 
shifted in our theatres"); II 99b ("Would you have Such an Her- 
culean actor in the scene. And not his hydra ? they must sweat 
no less. To fit their properties, than to express their parts"); II 
342b ("he prates Latin An it were a parrot, or a play-boy"); II 

'Cf. Webster 120a. 



BEN JONSON. 155 

102b ("it so far exceeds All insolent fictions of the tragic scene"); 
II 345a ("All the world's a play" — simile, 8 11.),' so II 350a; 
425b ("No theatres are more cheated with appearances"). 

Miscellaneous: Melt, dissolve, etc. I 4b, 66a, 69a, II 51b, 
441b ("melting as the weather in a thaw!"); Mirror, Glass, etc. 

I 67b, 143, 150b, II 255a, 325b, 348b, 365b, 410a ("the glass of 
custom, which is comedy," etc.); Mould II 465b, cf. 87a, I 66a, 
85a; Colors: I 37a; Motley I 95b, 154b; Black I 19b, 120b, 149b, 
275b, 330b, II 115a, 1 1 8a, 139a; White I 92b ("as white as 
innocence"), 255b; Red I 253a; Green II 337b; Poison I 19b, 
("black poison of suspect"), 96a, i66b, 212b, 296a, 304b, II 24a, 
8ib, 95a, loob, 128b, 135b; Instrument, Engine, Organ, I 72a, 
107b, 275a, 285b, 290a, 298a, 302a, 304a, 305b, 327a, 391a; 

II iiib ("The enginers I told you of are working. The machine 
'gins to move"), 232b ("It creaks his engine"), 305a, 328a, 329a, 
352b; Coin, Counterfeit I 24a, 69a, II 286a, 383b, 419b ("light 
gold — And cracked within the ring"); Painted I 244b, 306a; 
Swim I 77b, 344a; Drown I 295a, II 105a, 368a, 493a; To sound 
a depth I 291b ; Snare, Springe, Trap, etc., II 357b (net), 231b, 
436a, I 309b, 395b, II 175a (springe), 471a, II 41a (fettered), so 
317b; Tie, Tangle, Knot II 9b, 427b, 243b; Whet, Edge, etc. I 23a, 
149a ("the edge of my wit is clean taken off with the . . . stroke 
of your thin-ground tongue"), 193a, 387b, II 1 17a ("This twenty 
days of that decree We have let dull and rust," etc.), 154b, 498a; 
Scourge, whip, etc., I 65b, 123b, 259a (a bastinado of words), 
328b; Rip I 275b; Smother II 333a, 461b; To weigh in bal- 
ance, etc. I 454b, II 109b ("No rage . . . May weigh with yours, 
though Horror leaped herself Into the scale"); Weight, Burden, 
etc. I 296a, II 98a, I i6ib, 307a; I 197a ("our unspotted fame"); 
Dial I 83b, Clock I T6ia ("he will lie louder than most clocks"), 
194b, 276a ("Observe him, as his watch observes his clock"), 
438a, II 402a; Hourglass I 28b ("My brain, methinks, is like an 
hour-glass. Wherein my imaginations run like sands. Filling up 
time," etc.); Borrow ("Convey, the wise it call"), I 149a ("to 
speak by metaphor, you borrowed a girdle of hers"); Beam II 
205a (metaphorical uses of the word distinguished); Fireworks, 

'Cf. Jonson's "Discoveries" (Works, III 404). 



156 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

crackers, etc. I 130b, 179b, II 12b, Squib I 189a, II 53a; Distil 
I 250a, II 357b, 495b; Height I 331b (pinnacles of state), II 
136a; II 349a ("thereon hangs a history"); Prop I 246a, 291a; 
To piece I 406b, II 251b ("I will have all pieced, And friends 
again — It will be but ill-soldered!"), 411a. 

Almost every prominent domain of nature and of human 

life is drawn upon in Ben Jonson's use of figure. He is not a 

deeply metaphorical writer, nor on the other side 

^ does he fall into the conventional manner of using 

imagery ; but with an even-handed realism, if also somewhat 
through the spectacle of books, he sees life steadily and he sees 
it whole. Certain sides of nature and of human life, it has 
already been noted, he emphasizes to a high degree. Fire is 
often used by him in a metaphorical sense, the animal world 
constantly appears, all aspects of common human life are pre- 
sented ; agriculture, ships and sailing, sports, amusements, and 
hunting, domestic life, dress and ornament, colloquial images with- 
out end, a large number of coarse and repulsive images, man with 
his body and its senses and appetites, devils, witchcraft and con- 
juring, religion, classical and literary coloring in profusion, many 
references to the stage and the drama, — all these things are 
largely represented in Ben Jonson's pages. It is the complete 
life of the times in its humbler and more familiar phases. 
Nowhere, outside of Dickens, is there so encyclopaedic an array 
for any period. 



TABLE OF TROPES INDEXED 



157 



TABLE BY AUTHORS AND BY TOPICS OF TROPES INDEXED. 



No. of Plays Indexed. . 
Total number of pages 
(approximate) 



Aspects of Sky, etc 

Aspects of Waters 

Aspects of Earth 

Various: Times, Seasons, etc 

Vegetable World 

Animal World 

Fabulous Nat. History. . 



Total Nature. 



446 



Arts and Learning 

Law and Government. . 

Medical 

Various Occupations. . . 
Trades, Practical Arts, etc. 

Building, etc 

Agriculture 

Ships and Sailors 

Sports and Amusements . . . 

Domestic Life 

Dress and Adornment 

Colloquial, Comic, and 

Familiar Tropes 

Coarse & Repulsive Images 
The Body, its Parts, etc. . 
The Senses and Appetites 
Subjective Life, Religion, etc 
Death, the Grave, etc .... 

War, Arms, etc 

The Stage and the Drama 
Miscellaneous 



393 549 



129 169 



Total Man. 



Grand Totals. 



4 
2 
2 

2 
I 

3 

abovej "Aspe 
3 



5 
6 

94 
223 



387 



295 



64 



14 
268 464 



46 



87 208 



70 



1892 

100 
28 
46 
12 
41 

276 
23 



526 



433 



70; 



866 



1330 



4827 

555 
"3 
158 
44 
194 
676 
148 
1888 



166 
86 

105 
84 
58 
54 

144 
89 

128 

252 

148 

158 

157 

231 

55 

159 

75 

543 

2961 

4849 



Note: — This table is merely for purposes of general comparison. The 
enumerations are not complete under each head, and must l)e taken to 
represent only roughly the average from author to author. 
159 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 



i6i 



III. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 

Chief Forms of Trope in the Elizabethan Drama: The Eliza- 
bethan Drama is fundamentally national, complex, and passion- 
ate. Its imagery therefore is generally original. 
General Value varied, and intense. All varieties of trope in infi- 

t^- ^^j.1 ^ nite complexity are in constant use. Shakspere, of 
Elizabethan ^ - r > 

Dramatic course, is the great type and name of the period. 

Imagery and Shakspere's usage largely determines our judg- 

ment of the general characteristics of Elizabethan 
diction and imagery. The present study, however, prosecuted 
without reference to Shakspere, must present its results inde- 
pendently, and not attempt a correction from the standard of 
Shakspere for the statement of the entire period and the literary 
species as a whole. The other dramatic poets of the period, it 
need hardly be said, cannot abide the touchstone of Shakspere. 
A few supreme passages in Marlowe, some of Chapman's obscured 
but colossal metaphors, and now and then a brief and passion- 
ate simile in Webster or Tourneur, have the Shaksperian, or, in 
other words, the ideal Elizabethan dramatic quality. But no such 
level of performance in every variation and modulation of passion 
and beauty as that of Shakspere in a score of masterpieces is long 
kept up. Webster's searching similes, to my mind, approach 
nearest to it, but Webster lacks precisely variety and modulation. 
Indeed, deep and pregnant metaphor, adequate to the highest 
reaches of dramatic or poetic passion, is rare in the world's liter- 
ature. Pindar, ^schylus, and Shakspere represent a certain 
type of imagery, present, perhaps, in no others to the same 
degree; and concentrative and illuminative flashes of metaphor 
only less intense or subtle are sometimes found in modern poets 
such as Tennyson, Browning, and Victor Hugo. But the list is 
not long. 

The imagery of the Elizabethan drama outside of Shakspere 
is not then of the highest rank. Great passages and poetical 



164 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

pictures there are, however, and it is largely for these occasional 
beauties and excellences that this drama remains one of the most 
interesting and important sections of the world's minor litera- 
ture. "It is," as Mr. Lowell writes,' "for their poetical qual- 
ities, for their gleams of imagination, for their quaint and subtle 
fancies, for their tender sentiment, and for their charm of dic- 
tion, that these old playwrights are worth reading." 

These playwrights work as a rule hastily and almost imper- 
sonally or with little thought of Fame's eternal beadroll. 
Their imagery was designed for direct dramatic 
Method of effect. It is daring, and seldom regards the cen- 

^ ^^ ^ ^ sor. Nevertheless, it is not bv anv means naive 
of the Dram- 
g^jg^g and artless. They are strong and self-conscious 

craftsmen, well aware of the task that they are 

about, and continually casting about for new devices and literary 

effects. The university wits bring with them to the stage all the 

figures of rhetoric. "Art thou a scholar, Don Horatio ?" Jeronimo 

says to his son,'' 

"And canst not aim at figurative speech?" 

"Use all the tropes 
And schemes that Prince Quintilian can afford you ; 
And much good do your rhetoric's heart," 

says Fitzdottrel in The Devil is an Ass? And references of a 
similar sort abound in all the dramatists.'* The newly imported 
rhetoric and poetics of Italy and of the ancient writers were 
operant in English poetry and prose ^ before the revival of the 

' Old Eng. Dram., p. 26. 

^ First Part of Jeronimo (Hazlitt's Dodsley, IV 368). 

3jonson, II 22 1 a. 

■♦See for example : Lyly, II 91-92, 230 ; Marlowe, I 161; Webster, 12a, 33a 
("a dried sentence, stuft with sage") ; Chapman, 78, 83, 89, 93, 1 17, 142, 187, 
189, 226, 231, 234, 256, 329 ; and see the references under Ben Jonson, supra, 
p. 129 note I. 

5Cf. Sir Thomas Wilson, the Arte of Rhetorique, 1553 and later editions. 
Sir I'homas writes comprehensively of the theory of metaphor, as follows : 

" Men count it a point of wit to pass over such words as are at hand, and 
to use such as are far fetcht and translated [i. e., metaphorical, Lat. translatio]: 
or else it is because the hearer is led by cogitation upon rehearsal of a metaphor, 
and thinketh more by remembrance of a word translated than is there expressly 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 165 

drama, but the drama more than any other agency perhaps 
helped to popularize and diffuse the new literary diction, or at 
least such parts of it as were available for popular and dramatic 
use. Without the drama the breach between literary and popu- 
lar speech might never have been mended. Vital, condensed, 
and infinitely varied hgure was an outcome of the drama. 

In imagery as in other things there is observable a rapid devel- 
opment from Greene and Peele to Webster and Tourneur. The 
work of the early university wits is predominatingly 
The Evolution Hterary and imitative. Lyly, Peele, Greene, and 

Marlowe are full of classical imagery. The manner 
Imagery ° ■' 

of contemporary poetry is frequently followed. 

There is an epical expansiveness of diction throughout the most 

dramatic passages and situations of Peele and Greene, and much 

of Marlowe, especially in Tambiirlaine. Prolonged similes of an 

epical type are not infrequent ;' and several of them are borrowed 

directly from Spenser,^ and other contemporary poets. The 

style is poetical rather than dramatic. 

Lyric interludes, the "lyrical interbreathings " alluded to by 
Coleridge, are not infrequent, and include not only the interpo- 
lated songs, characteristic of the Elizabethan drama 
Interludes ^^ ^^^ ^^^ stages, but also passages in the body of 

the text which in movement and diction are lyrical 
rather than dramatic. ^ There are numerous touches of this sort 
in Greene and Peele, and many also in Marlowe. Lyrical is 
spoken ; or else because the whole matter seemeth by a similitude to be opened : 
or, last of all, because every translation is commonly and for the most part 
referred to the senses of the body, and especially to the sense of seeing, which 
is the sharpest and quickest above all other." (Fol. 91a. I quote, modernizing 
the spelling, from a copy of the first edition now in my possession, and formerly 
belonging to J. P. CoUier.l Note the reference to "far fetcht and translated " 
words, such words as were in one sense to become the very life of the diction 
of the succeeding age. Note also Ben Jonson's objection to " far-fet " metaphors 
many years later in his Discoveries (Works III 413b). 

' See the references on this head under Greene, Peele, and Marlowe, above, 
pp. 23, note S, 38-39, 58, note 5. 

*E. g. Peele, II 42; Marlowe, I 173, 183. 

3Cf. J. A. Symonds, Essays Speculative and Suggestive, 409. Mr. Symonds 
has developed this topic at considerable length and with his usual felicity of 



1 66 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

nearly the whole of Peek's Arraignment of Paris, which in fact is 
a masque rather than a play, and most of David and Bethsabe. 
Miles, Friar Bacon's servant, in Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar 
Bungay, not without decorum is made to talk in Skeltonian verse. 
In Act IV, scene ii, of James IV there is a passage of rhymed 
lyric dialogue between the huntsmen and the ladies. Lyrical in 
movement and imagery also is Tamburlaine's descant at the open- 
ing of Act II, scene iv, of the Second Part of Marlowe's play of 
that name, with its regularly repeated refrain, 

"To entertain divine Zenocrate." 

So in The Jew of Malta, Act IV, scene iv, Ithamore, not with- 
out parody, one must believe, addressing the precious Bellamira, 
drops into poetry, like Silas Wegg : 

" Content, but we will leave this paltry land. 
And sail from hence to Greece, to lovely Greece. 
I '11 be thy Jason, thou my golden fleece ; 
Where painted carpets o'er the meads are hurled. 
And Bacchus' vineyards overspread the world ;" — 

ending his little madrigal with the refrain from Marlowe's own 
poem of "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love," — 

"Thou in those groves, by Dis above, 
Shalt live with me, and be my love."' 

Indeed, so thoroughly was the poetical tradition established 
that Chapman, with his literary and classical prepossessions, 
although writing contemporaneously with Shakspere, was unable 
to shake off the epical conception of tragic style, and accordingly 
produced tragedies as destitute of dramatic movement and struc- 
ture as Kyd's translation of Garnier's Cornelia, or as the academic 
tragedies of Sir William Alexander or of Lord Brooke. Charac- 
teristic of the pie-Shaksperian school also is the abundance of 
personification of the formal type, and of hyperbole passing over 
into bombast. 

critical touch and charm of illustration, in an essay on "The Lyrism of the 
English Romantic Drama " contained in his volume entitled " In the Key of 
Blue." 

'See Lyric Movements in Webster, 88b, I42b-I43a, 144b, etc. 



SUM MA R Y AND CONCL USIONS. 1 6 7 

In the later dramatists included in this study these character- 
istics give way in large measure to others. Prolonged similes 
seldom occur, although short and pregnant similes 
Characteristics become more common, at least in Webster and 

,. , ^, Tonson. Formal and abstract personification is less 

Elizabethan -" ^ 

Drama frequently resorted to and is less frequently sus- 

tained, while a subtler and swifter incomplete or 
quasi-personification takes its place. Hyperbole also becomes 
less frequent, and after Chapman is seldom found assuming the 
Titanic airs of Tamburlaine and Bussy D'Ambois. Classical allu- 
sion also becomes less profuse, and the conventional and poetical 
manner yields to the dramatic and direct. There is a decided 
increase in complexity of style and diction, passion grows less 
grandiose and more introspective in its utterance, and there is a 
deepening intensity of speech and of imagination, until the dry 
and terrible manner of Webster and Tourneur is reached. The 
dramatic type of figure and diction, superseding the lyrical and 
the epical, is finally established. 

Among the tropes of high imaginative value which are espe- 
cially available for dramatic use, and of which therefore we may 
expect to find striking and frequent illustrations in 
<5^ T^^\^° ^^^ Elizabethan drama, metonymy and synecdoche 
in the Drama ^^^ hardly be ranked. Yet, as Professor Greene 
has said' "Some instances of metonymy manifest 
more imagination than do some instances of metaphor," and 
examples of this sort occur now and then in the dramatists. 
Thus, in The Revenger's Tragedy^ the Duchess' youngest son 
says of Antonio's wife, "her beauty was ordained to be my scaf- 
fold,''' — where evidently the particular form of means of death is 
suggested in place of the general term "death" itself, for the sake 
of greater force and vividness. Later in the same play occurs a 

' A Grouping of Figures of Speech, p. 19. 

== Tourneur, II, p. 16; cf. Webster Sob ("ere you attained This reverend 
garment"); Kyd, in Hazlitt's Dodsley, IV 357, 360 ("O my true-breasted 
father. . . . Had not your reverend years been present .... "), 364 ("worthy 
my sword's society with thee") ; Jonson I 308a (shield and sword), 414b ("all 
the yellow doublets and great roses in the town will be there"), II 85b (axes), 
104b (" this good shame ") ; etc. 



1 68 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

phrase which may no doubt be interpreted as a mere ellipsis, but 
which carries the effect of intense metaphor conjoined with 
metonymy, — "My Lord Antonio, for this time wipe your lady 
from your eyes.'' 

The commonplace of the rhetorics that simile is a non-dra- 
matic figure is hardly borne out by the facts of the case in the 
Elizabethan drama. The prolonged and elaborate 
Simile as simile is doubtless always the mark of the non- 

a Dramatic , . , i , , 

Fieure dramatic style, and the metaphor per se is a more 

intense and dramatic figure ; but the short simile 
in itself is not undramatic; at most it can be called a neutral 
figure. Striking examples of short similes in the most dramatic 
collocations exist without number throughout the drama. Indeed 
it can be said that the form of the short simile, with its slightly 
deliberate and intellectual cast, often lends itself to the expression 
of sardonic and tragic irony and similar emotions with startling 
effect. This appears in Webster in numberless instances : 

.... "like to calm weather 
At sea before a tempest, false hearts speak fair 
To those they intend most mischief" 

"your good heart gathers like a snow-ball 
Now your affection's cold."' 

" Like mistletoe on sear elms spent by weather, 
Let him cleave to her, and both rot together." ^ 

"Thou hast led me, like a heathen sacrifice, 
With music and with fatal yokes of flowers. 
To my eternal ruin."^ 

Of course, the context here, as almost everywhere in dramatic 
writing, is indispensable for grasping the emotional connotation 
■of the simile. 

Another highly dramatic and effective form of simile, a 
favorite with Elizabethan playwrights, is what may 
The Simile ^^ termed the Simile of Action. The illustration 
of Action 

that will occur at once is Othello's last speech : 

'Webster, 82b. 3 id. 17a. 

Id. 32a. *Id. 30b, 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 169 

" Set you down this ; 
And say besides, that in Aleppo once, 
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk 
Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state, 
I took by the throat the circumcised dog. 
And smote him — thus." \Stabs himself ^^ 

— -although this particular instance technically would be called 
Example rather than Simile, if either, by the rhetoricians. 

So the Duchess of Malfi, kneeling to her execution, exclaims : 

"heaven-gates are not so highly arch'd 
As princes' palaces ; they that enter there 
Must go upon their knees y 

And Virginius, as he kills Virginia, says : 

" Thus I surrender her into the court 
Of all the gods." 3 

An earlier instance occurs in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy,'^ where 
Hieronimo, holding in his hand papers entrusted to him by the 
citizens, promises 

" Revenge on them that murdered my son," when he has 
them in his toils, — 

" Then will I rent and tear them thus and thus, 
Shivering their limbs in pieces with my teeth." 
[^Tears the papers.^ 

This is the sign-language of simile and often excels elaborate 
diction in effectiveness. 

Implied simile, omitting the terms of comparison, — the figure 
intermediate between full simile and metaphor, — is naturally a 
frequent form. Complex and sometimes fantastic in structure, it 
is especially a favorite in the highly undramatic style of Lyly. 
Passing into the higher forms of imperfect allegory, parable, 
fable, and similar sententious forms, it is also a favorite with 

^Othello, Act V, sc. ii. Cf. Chapman 441b. 

» Webster, 89a. 

3ld. 173a. 

♦Hazlitt's Dodsley, V 129: See also Marlowe, I 156, II 211 ; Peele, I 125, 
Tourneur, II 6 (the address to the skull), 37 (the address to the sword), cf. 58, 
72, 120, 144; Jonson I 58b, II 22ib, 348b; Chapman 202b, 258a (the game of 
cards), etc. 



I 7° METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Others. But it is only with metaphor in its various manifestations 
that we arrive at the highest dramatic form among 
Metaphor, tropes. Dramatic poetry, and especially Eliza- 

its Various , . J 1 , . , , ^ , , , 

Forms as a bethan tragedy, has been preeminently the field for 

Dramatic ^^^ expression of human passion, and no form of 

Figure . language is so adapted to the expression of ideal- 

ized passion as metaphor. "The metaphor," as Dr. 
Wood' says, "has in serious poetry usually a distinct element of 
feeling ; " while simile and the more deliberate figures make their 
appeal more dispassionately to the imagination — the image- 
creating faculty — and to the understanding. Mere vividness of 
visual impression, mere definiteness of outline and 
Exactness not clearness of conception, are not essential qualities 
an essential r ,, . j ■ n r j 

jyjgj.jx ot all trope, and especially of dramatic trope, 

in Trope where usually emotional association and the repre- 

sentative realization of human pathos and passion 
are far more important functions of figure. The great merit of 
metaphor, as has been said by Aristotle,^ and many others after 
him, is that it- is a perception of hidden resemblances, and such 
resemblances by their nature are partial and generally are inexact 
and vague. As Burke" has said, — " In reality poetry and rhetoric 
do not succeed in exact description so well as painting does ; 
their business is to affect rather by sympathy than imitation ; to 
display rather the effect of things on the mind of the speaker, or 
of others, than to present a clear idea of the things themselves." 
Or, as Coleridge'* phrased the same idea : "The grandest efforts 
of poetry are where the imagination is called forth not to pro- 
duce, a distinct form, but a strong working of the mind, . . . 
viz., the substitution of a sublime feeling of the unimaginable 
for a mere image." 

'"T. L. Beddoes, a Survival in Style," American Journal of Philology, 
IV 445-455- 

=■ Rhetoric, Bk. Ill, ch. xi. 

3 On the Sublime and Beautiful, Pt. V (Works I 257). Burke has developed 
the whole subject very thoroughly: See Works I, pp.88, 133, 136,251,255, etc. 

t Lectures on Shakspere and Milton (Bohn ed.) p. 91. Further on the dis- 
tinction betwfeen vague and vivid imagery cf. Hennequin, La Critique Scientif- 
ique, 40-43 (Paris, 1890). 



SUMMAR V AND CONCL USIONS. 1 7 1 

The mere perception of analogy is not as such a poetical 
faculty. The mind of Sir Francis Bacon, so powerful and subtle 
in the perception of intellectual analogies, is standing evidence 
to the contrary. The sense of beauty, or the sense of passion, 
or both, in a high degree, are also necessary to the creative artist. 
In poetic art there always have been two types of 
mind : in the first place there is the mind supreme 
in the creation of mental images deeply informed 
with the sense of beauty, in the pictorial power attaching itself to 
human emotion ; of which type Homer, in ancient poetry, is an 
example, and Spenser, very strikingly, in English poetry; simile, 
and usually prolonged and elaborate simile, is the form of expres- 
sion natural to this type of mind ; in the second place there is 
the type which usually fuses the outlines of the image in the heat 
of its passion, making the ideas always subservient to the emotion, 
instead of making the emotion, for the moment, subservient to 
the idea, to the picture, as is so often the case with Homer and 
the epic poets ; .^schylus, among the ancients, and Shakspere, 
among the moderns, are the great examplars of this school ; and 
it is preeminently the dramatic school and the school of intense 
metaphor. It is probable that modern taste and instinct inclines 
more to the method of the dramatic school, but still it is too 
much, it seems to me, to assert, as Professor Sherman' apparently 
does, that the essential tendency of literary evolution is away 
from the expansive 'type and the school of simile, and is only 
toward the concentrative type and the school of 
Strong metaphor. "It is very plain," writes Dr. Wood,'' 

igu es n however, " that strong figures are the cornerstone of 

style,3 but especially of English style." The bold 
use of trope is one of the first characteristics of the Romantic 
School in poetry, at each of the recurrent periods of its recru- 
descence. In a certain sense this is largely true of the romantic 
art of the Elizabethan drama. But conjoined with the merely 

'Analytics of Literature, pp. 78 f. 

*Op. cit. 

3". . . pure Poetry, the essence of which consists in bold figures and a 
lively imagery" (Bp. Hard, Works, Vol. I, p. 99). Cf. also Dryden, Works ed. 
Scott and Saintsbury, V, ill f . 



172 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

bold and concentrative use of trope in this drama, there is the 
deliberate and frequent use of simile, not of the 
Weaker prolonged simile, it is true, but of the short and 

igures an emphatic simile. Shakspere, especially in his 

earlier work, is full of it, and it is almost the chief 
characteristic of the style of Webster, the most intense of the 
Elizabethans after Shakspere. At the same time, moreover, the 
other tendency towards the expansive in style and towards 
deliberate and weaker figures, is continually reasserting itself in 
all periods of literary history,' although probably the final result 
on the whole is a blending of various styles such as we see in 
Milton and Tennyson ; and the sympathetic or pregnant meta- 
phor, as Biese'' says, in its various forms and phases, has doubtless 
been a product of slow growth. 

At any rate the dramatic metaphor, in infinite complexity of 
form and expression and in varying degrees of intensity, is 
abundantly illustrated in the Elizabethan drama. 
Dramatic Passion and emotion rather than utilitarian econ- 

Metaphor; , . ^ . t^ • j 

its Function omy^ seem to me to be its function. Brevity and 

directness are doubtless the usual concomitants of 
passion and emotion, but they are hardly the primary motive of 
dramatic and other aesthetic metaphor. If we disregard the 
external marks of difference between metaphor, simile, and other 
tropes of a high degree of imaginative intensity, they all perhaps 
may be divided into two classes acccording to their subjective 

effect — a division which also corresponds roughly 
Two Essentia ^^ ^^^ primary division among tropes according to 
TroDe- the ^^^ source from which the subject-matter of each 
Vivid Image is derived. The first class includes such tropes as 
versus the primarily illustrate Aristotle's explanation'' of the 

Sympathetic psychological effect of metaphor and simile as 
Metaphor affording a gratification of intellectual curiosity in 

' Homer is succeeded by the Latin epic poets ; then Ariosto, Tasso, etc. ; then 
Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth ; and in our day typical minor poets like William 
Morris and other dreamers of dreams. 

^Das Metaphorische in der dichterischen Phantasie, pp. 29-30. 

3Cf. Spencer's Phil, of Style. 

■t Rhetoric, Bk. Ill c. x. ; also Bk. I c. xi. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 173 

the perception of hidden analogies, of likeness in difference. 
Such are many nature similes and those which generality excel 
in vividness of image. The second and larger class, while some- 
times also answering to the test of conveying instruction, prima- 
rily make their appeal remotely or directly to the human will, to 
"the will to live," in the phraseology of the Schopenhauerian 
philosophy. Such are the sympathetic metaphor and in fact most 
metaphors and similes involving human affairs and interests in 
one term or the other of the comparison. Nature similes involv- 
ing "the pathetic fallacy," all personifications, full or concealed, 
and almost all forms of sententious figures are of this sort. By 
far the greater proportion of the figures used in dramatic 
poetry, where the comparison almost always involves the human 
in at least one of its terms, are of this class. The brief and 
intensive metaphor is so far distinguished from other forms 
of trope of this class in its greater directness, subtlety, and force 
of appeal to the emotional sympathies of "the will to live." 
Thus Macbeth's passionate cry, "Out, out, brief candle;" 
forces home upon the mind not so much a comparison 
conveying useful instruction, as an intense and sympathetic 
realization, through the humblest symbolism, of the brevity 
and uncertainty of life and a score of other emotions arising 
from the situation and the context, but far too complex and 
searching to be expressed by any circumlocution of literal 
language. 

This form of figure, the sympathetic or intensive metaphor, 

brought to its perfection by Shakspere, is exemplified with varying 

degrees of power and success throughout the works 
The Intensive , , • ^ t- i 1 ■ • 

_, , , . of his contemporaries. Few, however, show it in 

Metaphor in v ■> ■> 

the Drama great degree, although almost all show traces at 

least of a style of expression and feeling which 

was in the air of the Renaissance period. Marlowe's passion is 

too tumultuous, rhythmical, and grandiose to exhibit many 
examples of the concentrative metaphor and the 

In Marlowe brief and intensive simile. Marlowe like a true 
poet is fond of the nature picture with but slight 

emotional connotation : 



174 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

"The horse that guide the golden eye of Heaven, 
And blow the morning from their nosterils, 
Making their fiery gait above the clouds." 

"their ensigns spread 
Look like the parti-colored clouds of heaven." 

Intenser is: 

"Oh, thou art fairer than the evening air. 
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars." 
Or Faustus' passionate cry: 

"See where Christ's blood streams in the firmament." 

Full of symbolism, too, is the concluding chorus of Faustus: 

"Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight. 
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough, 
That sometime grew within this learned man." 

The diction of Edward II is somewhat more dramatic than 
elsewhere in Marlowe: 

"Brother, revenge it, and let these their heads 

Preach upon poles." 

"methinks you hang the heads, 

But we'll advance them, traitors ! " 
" My heart is as an anvil unto sorrow, 

Which beats upon it like the Cyclops' hammers." 

"weep not for Mortimer," 
That scorns the world, and, as a traveller. 
Goes to discover countries yet unknovvn." 

And see Edward's language to his jailors. 

Greene, Peele, and Lyly have little figure of this sort that is 
significant. Kyd's great reputation in his own time, we may 

conjecture, was partly due to his daring experi- 
In Kyd ments in the art of violent and intensive imagery. 

Tropes like the examples that follow must have 
had a striking and novel effect after the arid literature of the 
preceding two hundred years upon a public eager for sensation, 
but with tastes yet crude and unformed.' 

' Perhaps, if we may conjecture from Henslow's diary, the best of these 
are from Jonson's hand; or else, according to Lamb (Spec, of Eng. Dram. 
Poets, p. ii), from Webster's; or, according to Coleridge (Table Talk, Bohn 
ed., p. 203), from Shakspere's. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 175 

"A melancholy, discontented courtier 
Whose famished jaws look like the chap of death.'''' 

" Methinks since I grew inward with revenge, 
I cannot look with scorn enough on death." 

See also the fanciful description of the classical inferno at 
the beginning of The Spanish Tragedy,^ or Hieronimo's semi- 
lunatic allegory in his speech to the "Portingals."^ 

"There is a path upon your left-hand side 
That leadeth from a guilty conscience 
Unto a forest of distrust and fear," etc. 

Chapman's tragedies are replete with metaphor, but his man- 
ner is expatiatory, tortuous, and magniloquent, rather than con- 
cise and intense. Occasionally, however, he breaks 
In Chapman out into the characteristic Elizabethan metaphor. 
For example : 

"my heart shrugs at it."^ 
"I stroke again at him, and then he slept.'"" 
"He died splinted w'lth his chamber grooms." ^ 

"D'Ambois' sword 

Shot like a pointed comet at the face 
Of manly Barrisor."^ 

Even Jonson in the midst of his resolute realism presents a 

few instances of similar phraseology.^ But it is from the tragic 

T ^ and intense genius of Webster and of Tourneur 

In Tourneur ° 

that we must look for the greatest number of con- 

centrative tropes. Tourneur is full of flash-light images: 

" Your gravity becomes your perished soul 
As hoary mouldiness does rotten fruit." ^ 

" O, that marrowless age 
Should stuff the hollotv bones with damn'd desires."' 

Hippolito in The Revenger'' s Tragedy urges Antonio's friends to 
avenge the latter's wrongs at the hands of the Duchess' son ; and, 

' Hazlitt's Dodsley, V pp. 8-10. * Id. p. 147b. 

'Id. p. 106. 7 See the examples quoted supra, pp. 134-135. 

3 Chapman, p. 337. ^Tourneur, I 34. 

■•Id. p. 366. 5 Id. II 5. 

5Id. p. 175. 



176 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. j 

in default of legal justice which is bribed, drawing his own sword, \ 

cries, \ 

"Nay, then, step forth thou bribeless officer! j 

I bind you all in steel to bind you surely. I 

Here let your oaths meet to be kept and paid, j 

Which else will stick like rust and shame the blade. ,1 

Strengthen my vow, that if, at the next silting, | 

Judgment speak all in gold, and spare the blood i 
Of such a serpent — e'en before their seats 
To let his soul out, which lofig time was found 
Guilty in heaven^ 

And Castiza, indignantly rejecting the evil suggestions of her j 

mother, says to her, j 

" I have endur'd you with an ear of fire; '■ 

Your tongues have struck hot irons on my face. , 

Mother, come from that poisonous woman there.'"'^ ■' 

See also : j 

" Hast thou beguil'd her of salvation, i 

And rubbed hell o'er with honey? " ^ j 

" To have her train borne up, and her soul trail i' th' dirt."'* 1 

— and many others. . 

Similarly Webster : 'i 

In Webster "... Sleep with the lion, 1 

And let this brood of secure foolish mice | 

Play with your nostrils, till the time be ripe j 

For the bloody audit and the fatal gripe." ^ \ 

" And so I leave thee, 
With all the Furies hanging 'bout thy neck.'"^ \ 

" I have heard grief nam'd the eldest child of sin."' ' 

" These are two cupping-glas.ses that shall draw 
All my infected blood out." {^Showing the pistols^'^ 

" Fate 's a spaniel. 
We cannot beat it from us."' 

' Tourneur, 37. *Id. 35a. 

= Id. 51. 7ld. 44b. ' 

3 Id. 54. 8 Id. 47b. i 

*ld. 123. 'Id. 49a. .■ 

5 Webster, 27b. . ] 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. I-JJ 

" Her guilt treads on 
Hot burnt Jig con Iters y ' 

" Sir, your direction 
Shall lead me by the hand.'" ^ 

" I'll second you in all danger ; and, howe'er, 
My life keeps rank with yours." ^ 

" You shall see me wind my tongue about his heart 
Like a skein of silk." ■* 

" Because I do not strike you, 
Or give you the lie, — such foul preparatives 
Would show like the stale injury of wine, — 
I reserve my rage to sit on my sword's point.'" ^ 

" His memory to virtue and good men 
Is still carousing Lethe''' * 

" Thy violent lust 
Shall, like the biting of the envenom'd aspic, 
Steal thee to hell.'''' "> 

Webster's characteristic figure, however, is the deliberate 
comparison. But the emotional power of his similes, if some- 
what dry, bitter, and conscious, is scarcely less than that of the 
deepest and most burning metaphors. 

Out of the hurry and stress and profusion of metaphorical 

speech which gets to be characteristic of many of the Elizabethan 

dramatists result several tendencies which may be 

Various g^j^j ^^ ^^^^.j^ ^^^^ drama of the time as a whole. 

Excesses in the t- ... ^i_ • 

Use of Tropes ^^^ ^^ ^ ^^^^* amount of cumulative and 

alternative trope. Figures are dealt out in over- 
measure ; ^ there is often a very riot of metaphors and similes ; 
the poet delights to show his dexterity with language ; few of the 
dramatists are free from the vice of punning and every sort of 

'Webster, 74b. 5 id. 117b. 

'Id. 80a. 6 Id. 169a. 

^Id. 92b. 7 Id. 172a. 

4 Id. 95b. 

^See the distinctions on the subject of accumulated and daring metaphor 
in The Treatise on The Sublime usually ascribed to Longinus XXXII i, 2: 

" Those outbursts of passion which drive onwards like a winter torrent draw 
with them as an indispensable accessory whole masses of metaphor . . .," etc. 
(Havel's translation, p. 58.) 



I 78 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

fantastic playing with words ; hyperbole is a familiar figure with 
them, and such is the superabundance of dramatic passion press- 
ing forward for expression that the grossest exaggerations seldom 
shock them ; conceits everywhere abound, witty, dainty, fan- 
tastic, feeble, eloquent, — of every sort. We feel the approach of 
the " metaphysical " school in poetry. Extremes meet in the 
same writer. Chapman is turgid, grandiose, extravagant in his 
tragedies ; such sound and fury of metaphor, obscurely signifying 
weighty and impassioned things, can hardly be paralleled else- 
where in literature. At the same time his comedies are often 
witty, easy, and full ot natural life. Involved metaphor is counter- 
balanced in him by a habit of logical and emphatic simile. So 
Webster, the deepest poet of passion of the age after Shakspere, 
prefers to use the dry and clear-cut simile to accentuate the 
emotion of pity and terror. Yet Webster, too, at 
^^\ times heaps metaphor upon metaphor. Bosola in 

The Duchess of Malfi ' reproaches the duchess for 
her despair : 

" Leave this vain sorrow. 

Things being at the worst begin to mend : the bee 

When he hath shot his sting into your hand. 

May then play with your eyelid. 

Duchess: Good comfortable fellow. 

Persuade a wretch that 's broke upon the wheel 

To have all his bones new set ; entreat him live 

To be executed again. Who must despatch me ? 

I account this world a tedious theatre, 

For I do play a part in't 'gainst my will. 

Bosola : Come, be of comfort, I will save your life. 

Duchess: Indeed, I have not leisure to tend 

So small a business. 

Besola : Now, by my life I pity you. 

Duchess: Thou art a fool, then. 

To waste thy pity on a thing so wretched 

As cannot pity itself. I at?i full of daggers. 

Puff, let me blow these vipers from ttie.'" 

Dramatic innuendo everywhere abounds in Webster. Excited 
imaginations naturally have resource to suggestion by metaphor 
'Act IV sc. i (Works p. 85b); see also Works 21a. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 179 

and are loth to drop the game. A little snatch of dialogue 
between Bosola and Antonio in The Duchess of Malji (\Nths,itr 
70b) is typical : 

Bosola: You are a false steward. 

Antonio: Saucy slave, I'll pull thee up by the roots. 

Bos. : May be the ruin will crush you to pieces. 

Ant.: You are an impudent snake indeed, sir: 

Are you scarce warm, and do you show your sting ? 

You libel well, sir. 

Bos. : No, sir ; copy it out 

And I will set my hand to 't. • 

Chapman is particularly fond of massing metaphors. See, 
for example in Byron's Conspiracy King Henry's speech to Byron 
concerning La Fin :' 

" Why suffer you that ill-aboding vermin 
To breed so near your bosom ? be assured 
His haunts are ominous ; not the throats of ravens. 
Spent on infected houses, howls of dogs, 
When no sound stirs, at midnight ; apparitions 
And strokes of spirits clad in black men's shapes. 
Or ugly women's; the adverse decrees 
Of constellations, nor security 
In vicious peace, are surer fatal ushers 
Of femall mischiefs and mortalities 
Than this prodigious fiend is, where he fawns." 

This same tendency, connected as it is with the tendency to 

conceits and over-elaboration of figures, results also in a great 

profusion of tropes which for want of a better name 

Sententious ^^ ^^jj^^ Sententious Figures,^ including Alle- 

Tropes o ' ij 

gory, Perfect and Imperfect, Fable, Parable, Prov- 
erb, and also metaphors and similes of a gnomic cast, such as 
are very frequent throughout the drama. A sort of implied 

•Act III sc. i (pp. 23ob-23ia). See also the superb cumulative effects in 
Byron's dying speech, quoted above, pp. 134-135; and see Marlowe's 
Tamburlaitie passim. The great examples of this sort of effect, however, are 
to be found in Shakspere. See the Dover cliff speech, King Lear IV vi ; the 
apostrophe to England — "This royal throne of kings," in Richard II, Act II 
sc. i ; etc. 

^See further on sententious figures, infra, pp. 204!.; see also: Greene, 179a 
(Friar Bacon's prophecy of Elizabeth, "Diana's rose"), 200a, 200b, 219a (fable 



i8o METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

simile or metaphorical phrase or passage is the favorite form. 
Lyly especially abounds in them ; for example, "There is no sur- 
feit so dangerous as that of honey, nor any poison so deadly as 
that of love; in the one physic cannot prevail, nor in the other 
counsel."' This sort of proportional simile with the sign of 
comparison omitted passes very readily into the imperfect alle- 
gory, as does also the pursued or compound metaphor which is 
likewise so frequent in the early dramatists. Indeed the com 
pound metaphor Gerber ^ apparently treats as allegory. The gen- 
eral indirection and ethical impressiveness of these figures com- 
mended them to the Elizabethan writers. Greene and Chapman 
especially abound in them ; Jonson also has many, especially prov- 
erbs and others of a colloquial cast ; Webster is more dramatically 
sententious. The taste for this sort of thing in the earlier 
dramatists is connected with the tendency of contemporary liter- 
ature to allegory and emblem. Notice has already been taken of 
the echoes of Spenser's imagery in Peele and in Marlowe.3 
The emblematic devices of Young Mortimer and Lancaster for 
Edward's "stately triumph" in Act II scene ii of Marlowe's 
Edward II recall also the Spenser of The Visions and similar 
imitations of mediaeval and contemporary motives out of Petrarch 
and the French poets. 

"A lofty cedar-tree, fair flourishing, 
On whose top-branches kingly eagles perch, 
And by the bark a canker creeps me up. 
And gets into the highest bough of all : 
The motto, Acque tandeiny'' 

The Euphuistic employment of a fabulous natural history, 
which invaded the drama at this period, is a part of the same 
tendency to fable and emblem. 

of the lion, the hind, and the fox) ; Marlowe, II 154-5 5 Webster, 32b (fable of 
the crocodile and the wren), and passim for sententious couplets and similes ; 
Chapman, 185b (fable of the traveler, the north wind, and the sun) ; etc. 

' Works I 1 12. See also his various prologues, especially the " Prologue at 
the Black Friars " to Alexander and Canipaspe. 

= Die Sprache als Kunst, II 98. 

3 Supra, pp. 25, 39. 

■•Marlowe, II 154-5- 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. l8l 

Catachresis and mixed metaphor we naturally expect to find 

largely exemplified in a diction such as that of the Elizabethan 

dramatists, and far-fetched comparisons and meta- 

Catachresis phors subtle and elliptical beyond measure doubt- 

„ ^ ^ less do abound ; but the typically crude and s^ro- 

Metaphor ; r j & 

tesque mixed metaphor is much less frequent than 
might be expected. Too much real passion and emotional 
excitement dictated the utterances of these men to permit many 
lapses into mere senility and vacuity of imagery. Rant, extrava- 
gance, and hyperbole there is in abundance in Kyd, Marlowe, 
Chapman and others, but little mere incompetence and impotence 
of picture and phrase.' Chapman, it is true, is too often involved, 
obscure, and excessive, but with him it is rather a matter of tor- 
tuous phraseology, and of overwrought hyperbole, than of any 
weakness of the image-conceiving power. Seldom does he 
descend to mere absurdities like the following from La Fin's 
speech to Henry in Act I scene i of Byron's Conspiracy :'^ 

"Nor shall frowns and taunts, . . . 
Keep my free throat from knocking at the skyT 

Or later (Act IV scene i):' 

"tell our brother . . . 
... in what prayers we raise our hearts to heaven, 
That in more terror to his foes, and wonder, 
He may drink earthquakes, a} id devour the thunder.'''' 

The love of hyperbole, indeed, was the great provocative of 
catachresis among the Elizabethans. But the heightening of fig- 
ure throughout the greater years of the drama is emotional rather 
than visual or logical. Elliptical figures which border on the 
non-logical prevail, at least in tragedy — "good wits will apply" 
was the motto of the age. For those who care to apply the test 
there are few of these that cannot be resolved syllogistically after 
the manner of Lord Kames"* or of Dr. Abbott,^ but the process is 
not the real process psvchologically underlying their composi- 

' See examples of mixed metaphor in Marlowe, supra, pp. 36-37. 

= Chapman, p. 217a. 

3 Id., p. 235b; see also 164b. 

''Elements of Criticisms, II 282 f. 

sShaksperian Grammar, §§ 517 f. 



1 82 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

tion. Later, and in comedy even as early as Lyly, intellectual 
fancy and mere conceits get the upper hand of nature and pas- 
sion. 

Of the rapid transition from image to image which borders 
on catachresis, but which is always characteristic of the highly 
metaphorical and impassioned style, Webster himself, exact and 
clear cut as his mental processes habitually are, offers several 
examples : 

" Let the young man play still upon the bit, 
Till we have brought and trained hitn to our lure^^ 

" His smooth crest hath cast a palped film 
Over Rome's eyes."^ 

Other passages in which simile treads upon the heel of simile 
exist in great number and have already been referred to.^ 

Conceits and verbal and intellectual jugglery of every type 
are a marked characteristic in greater or less degree of almost 
the entire body of Elizabethan literature. Under 
Conceits each dramatist reference already has been made to 

numerous examples of conceits and plays upon 
words. In tragedy they generally appear under the form of 
hyperbole. In romantic and popular comedy they assume every 
form, from Lyly's Euphuism and Shakspere's infinitely varied 
archness, artifice, and drollery, to Jonson's colloquialism, and the 
fantastical and metaphysical subleties of the later school. 

In comedy and occasionally in more serious drama it must be 
borne in mind that these and similar aberrations from classical 
taste are very frequently in keeping and have a justification in 
the ethos of a drama which holds the mirror up to a life and a 
society so romantic, fantastic, and extravagant as that of the 
Elizabethan age in many respects was. The chief defect of 
frigid and "metaphysical" conceits is precisely the lack of such 
a justification in dramatic truth or other adequate aesthetic 
motive. 

'Webster, p. i6ob; cf. also i6lb ("under his smooth calmness cloaks a 
tempest"). 

2 Id. p. 162a. 

3 Supra, pp. xii, 177 f. 



SUM MA RY AXD CONCL USIONS. 1 8 3 

That extravagant forcing of the analogical faculty which is 
the basis of conceits, takes various forms in the Elizabethan dram- 
atists.' Conceits that strangely intensify dramatic 

rama ic effect are not uncommon. Webster's similes, which 

Conceits r , , ... 

often border on conceits in the remoteness and 

unexpectedness of their analogies, almost never fail to emphasize 

and enforce the exact tone of dramatic feeling desirable and 

desired in any given situation. Thus in The White Detnl the 

taunting irony of Monticelso's speech to Francisco de Medici is 

accentuated by the seemingly careless strangeness of his phrase : 

"Come, come, my lord, untie your folded thoughts. 
And let them dangle loose as a bride's hair : — 
Your sister's poisoned."'' 

Tourneur is even more impressive in such effects : 

" Hast thou beguil'd her of salvation 
And rubbed hell o'er with honey?'' ^ 

"Slaves are but nails to drive out one another."^ 
Or in that most dramatic interview between the two brothers 
Vindici and Hippolito and their mother in Act IV, scene iv, of 
The Revenger's Tragedy,^ how sudden and intense is the emo- 
tional transition indicated bv Vindici's ironical metaphor at sight 
of his mother's repentance : 

"Nay, an you draw tears once, go to bed .... 
Brother, it rains; ' twill spoil your dagger; house it." 

Airy and fantastic conceits, the very false gallop of wits, are first 
exemplified in Lyly's comedies. The entire Euphuistic natural 
history" is a string of conceits. But Lyly excels also 
Airy and -^^ sprightly and witty dialogue elaborated through 

Fantastic r r . .• • „ •, ,- i,. 

_ ., mazes of fantastic conceit. He delights to pursue 

Conceits ° ^ 

airy poetical fancies through all the possible varia- 
tions of metaphor. Here is a fragment of dialogue between 
Cupid and a Nymph of Diana :* 

' On verbal conceits and plays on words in the drama, cf. A. W. Schlegel, 
Dramatic Art and Literature, trans. Black, p. 366. 

'Webster, p. 27a. •♦Tourneur, II 103. 

3 Tourneur, II 54. 5 Id. 122. 

* Lyly, I 223 (Gallalhea I ii); see I 53 (" my palace is paved with grass, 



184 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Nymph: Love, good sir, what mean you by it? or what do 
you call it? 

Cupid: A heat full of coldness, a sweet full of bitterness, a 
pain full of pleasantness ; which maketh thoughts have eyes, and 
hearts ears ; bred by desire, nursed by delight, weaned by jealousy, 
killed by dissembling, buried by ingratitude ; and this is love, 
fair lady,— will you any?" 

The conceits of love, following the motives of contemporary 
poetry, are frequently introduced by other dramatists. Chapman 
in All Fools, Act IV, scene i, draws a humorous picture of the 
extravagant lover : ' 

"I had quite been drown'd in seas of tears 
Had not I taken hold in happy time 
Of this sweet hand ; my heart had been consumed 
To a heap of ashes with the flames of love, 
Had it not sweetly been assuaged and cool'd 
With the moist kisses of these sugar'd lips." 

And similarly Jonson : = 

"No more of Love's ungrateful tyranny, 
His wheels of torture, and his pits of birdlime, 
His nets of nooses, whirlpools of vexation. 
His mills to grind his servants into powder" — etc. 

Chapman's comedies contain many light and charming conceits ; 
thus : . . " Indeed thou told'st me how gloriously he apprehended 
the favor of a great lady i' th' presence, whose heart, he said, stood 
a tiptoe^ in he?- eye to look at him,'"'' or, "Up to the heart in 
love;"= or, "She hath exiled her eyes from sleep;"* or this : 
" Her blood went and came of errands betinjixt her face and her 

and tiled with stars ; " cf. the French proverb — "dormir a la belle etoile ; " cf. 
Webster, 152b : " This three months did we never house our heads But hi yon 
great star-chamber; cf. Tourneur, I 139 : "In yon star-chamber thou shalt 
answer it ") ; or see II 1 14 (Halfpenny's dream of prunes, currants, and raisins) ; 
or II 232 (Silvestris' wooing of Niobe) ; etc. 

' Chapman, 68b. 

= Jonson, II 377a {The New Inti, IV iii). 

3 Cf. Kyd, Hazlitt's Dodsley, IV 391 ("my blood 's a tiptoe"). 

-» Chapman, 133b [Mons. UOlive IV i). 

5 Chapman, 51a. 

6 Id. 328b. 



SUMMAR Y AND CONCL USIONS. 1 8 5 

heart, and these changes I can tell you are shrewd tell-tales.'" 
Compare Webster, 132b; 

" I cannot set myself so many fathom 
Beneath the height of my true heart as fear." 

Or see the gallant Captain Quintiliano's comparison of the 
service of a feast with the honorable service of the field, in May- 
Day, Act IV, scene iv.'' 

Jonson is full of comic conceits, at times grotesque and extrav- 
agant ; satire and burlesque, however, is usually their motive. 
Thus, in The Staple of News ,^ Act IV, scene i : 

"O, how my princess draws me with her looks. 
And hales me in, as eddies draw in boats. 
Or strong Charybdis ships that sail too near 
The shelves of love ! The tides of your two eyes, 
Wind of your breath, are such as suck in all 
That do approach you." 
Closely akin to the fantastic conceits so characteristic of the 
romantic comedy vein of this period are the abstract and "meta- 
physical" conceits which, occasionally developed 
Abstract and j^^ traecedv and comedy for dramatic purposes. 
Metaphysical . , , .\ . .1 

Con its point the way to the colder and more vicious style 

of the poetry of the fantastic school. Many of the 
subtler and finer effects of the peculiar Elizabethan dramatic 
phraseology depend upon figures of this sort, which are often 
tropological paradoxes. Thus in Chapman's yi//jF(9^/i-, Act I, scene 
i, Valerio, whose father is thwarting his aspirations to gentility and 
trying to force him into "husbandry," exclaims: 

"My father? why, my father, does he think 
To rob me of f?iyselj? "'* 

Similarly in Monsieur W Olive, Act IV, scene i : 

"You know the use of honor, that will ever 
Retire into itself."^ 

Similarly Tourneur* (though scarcely metaphorical) : 

"Joy 's a subtle elf. 
I think man's happiest when he forgets himself.''' 
' Chapman, p. 317a. ■• Chapman, p. 49a. 

* Id. p. 300. 5 Chapman, 130b. 

3 Jonson, II 317b. ^Tourneur, II 124; cf. Webster, 49b, 83a. 



1 86 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

And also: "What, brother? Am I far enough from myself?"' 
Or: "Mother, come from that poisonous woman there."^ 
And Jonson,3 translating Persius' " Ne te quaesiveris extra" : 

"as if I lived 
To any other scale than what's my own. 
Or sought 7ny self without myself, from home."* 

Similar subtleties abound : 

"O, at that word 
I'm lost again; you cannot find me yet; 
I'm in a throng of happy apprehensions."^ 

"'twas spoke by one 
That is most inward with the duke's son's lust."* 

" Here was the .... fittest hour, to have made my revenge 

familiar with him."'' 

So Kyd:* "since I grew inward yi\\\\ revenge." 

Kyd again:' "He had not seen the back of nineteen years." 

Chapman : '° " O, the infinite regions betwixt a woman's tongue 

and her heart ! Similarly Jonson : " 

"If this were true now ! but the space, the space. 
Between the breast and lips — Tiberius' heart 
Lies a thought farther than another man's." 

Webster :'^ "O, the secret of my prince, 

Which I will wear on the inside of my heart." 

So Shakspere :'^ "I will wear him 

In my heart's core." 

Jonson :'" "They say lines parallel do never meet, 

He has met his parallel in wit and school-craft." 

^ Tourneur, II 24. => Id. II 51. 

3 Jonson, II 350b {The New Inn, II i ). 

*Cf. Ford, II 287 {Fancies Chaste and Noble IV i) : "Come home again 
.... to thine own simplicity." 

5 Tourneur, II 81. ^ Hazlitt's Dodsley, V 168. 

^Tourneur, II 59. ' Id. 105. 

7 Id. II 130. '° Chapman, 158b. 

"Jonson, I 295b. Similarly see Shirley, The Witty Fair One, I iii (Mer- 
maid ed., p. 13) and Hyde Park, III ii (p. 221); also Beaumont and Flelcher» 
Philaster, I i, (Mermaid ed. I, p. III). 

'^Webster, 80a. •■•Jonson, II 353b. 

^3 Hamlet, 111 ii 70. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. io7 

Ford:' " My soul 

Runs circular in sorrow for revenge." 

Tourneur, II 137: "All sorrows 

Must run their circles into joys." 

Chapman r "Hereafter? 'Tis a supposed infinite." 
Tourneur •? 

" Make .... A drunkard clasp his teeth and not undo 'em, 
To suffer wet damnation to run through 'em." 
Sententious ideas similarly are often cast into the form of 
quasi-conceits for a juster emphasis, as in Jonson:"* "It is a com- 
petency to him that he can be virtuous." Or Webster : = 
" I have long served virtue 
And ne'er ta'en wages of her." 

Or Tourneur* : " Patience is the honest man's revenge." 

Colossal conceits, conceits that become hyperboles, as well as 
those that are simply crude and extravagant, exist in great num- 
ber thioughout the Elizabethan drama. In the 
Hyperbolical ^^^^ passages and in the best authors we are never 
Conceits ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ Flamineo's dying speech in The 

White Devil, ^ in the very resolution of the tragic knot, is spoiled 
by this bit of atrocity, unworthy of Donne or of Cowley: 
" My life was a black charnel. 1 have caught 
An everlasting cold; I have lost my voice 
Most irrecoverably." 
And similarly in The Duchess of Malji, this is part of Ferdi- 
nand's dying speech: 

" Give me some wet hay; I am broken winded. 
I do account this world but a dog-kennel."* 
In Jonson's Sad Shepherd^ Amie's love- plaints are such as 

this : 

" I weep, and boil away myself in tears; 
And then my panting heart would dry those fears; 
I burn, though all the forest lend a shade," etc. 
'Ford, I 188. 6 Tourneur, I 153. 

=" Chapman, 169b. 7 Webster, 50b. 

3 Tourneur, II 83. ^Id- loob. 

Monson, I 162. sjonson, II 501b. 

5 Webster, 65a. 



1 88 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

The height of the bizarre however is reached in Chapman's 
comparison : ' 

" Love is a razor, cleansing being well used, 
But fetcheth blood, still being the least abused." 

Or in his similes of the shoeing horn: "Make both their 
absences shoeing-horns to draw on the presence of --lEmilia.* 

Shakspere makes use of the same comparison in Troilns and 
Cressida, V i 53, describing Menelaus as "a thrifty shoeing-horn 
in a chain, hanging at his brother's leg." 

Worse in effect because seriously meant is Bussy D' Ambois' 
dying injunction : ^ 

" Tell them all that D' Ambois now is hasting 
To the eternal dwellers; that a thunder 
Of all their sighs together for their frailties 
Beheld in me, may quit my worthless fall 
With a fit volley for my funeral.'' 

— recalling Tourneur : ■* 

" His gasping sighs are like the falling noise 
Of some great building, when the ground-work breaks." 

Worse yet is D' Amville's imprecation in the Atheist's Tragedy} 

" Dead be your tongues ! Drop out 
Mine eye-balls and let envious Fortune play 
At tennis with 'em." 

Hyperbole, bombast, and extravagance are absent from few 
of the Elizabethans. Kyd, Marlowe, Greene, and Chapman show 

the most, although passages of it are to be found 
Hyperbole here and there in almost every playwright of the 

^ ^ time. In fact hyperbolical expression was a recog- 

Drama nized form of dramatic emphasis. The way had 

been prepared for it by the Herods, the devils, and 
the hufhng young gallants of the mystery and morality plays. 
The passion and the imagination of the period as reflected in its 
minor writers, whatever qualities of exaltation and of beauty it 
has, is also at times fundamentally crude and violent, especially 

'Chapman, 165a. ■♦Tourneur, I 136. 

2 Chapman, 291a; similarly, 136b, 137b. 5 Id. I 54. 

3 Id. 175b. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 189 

in the popular drama, which was so largely freed from all restraints 
of literary form and tradition. The introduction of the element 
of literary form and tradition by Marlowe and his associates 
affected the use of hyperbole in two ways. In the first place it 
reduced the harshness and formlessness of the earlier rant into 
some sort of measure; and in the second place it tended to sub- 
stitute poetical and idealized forms of passion for the mere bar- 
barism of the earlier extravagance. Tamdurlaine's magnificence 
and hyperbole is immeasurable but it is idealized. The weak 
points of the new style, however, were very quickly seen and satire 
of Kyd and Greene and the other early emulators and imitators 
of Marlowe in this vein begins at once. In the second part of 
The Return from Parnassus, Act III, sc. iv and following, in the 
part of Furor Poeticus, there is some significant burlesque of the 
new style. Tamburlaine's habitual hyperbolical insolence towards 
the gods — 

" The God of wars resigns his room to me, 
Meaning to make me general of the world: 
Jove viewing me in arms, looks pale and wan. 
Fearing my power should pull him from his throne," — ' 

seems to be the general model of the burlesque invocation of 
Furor Poeticus :' 

" Awake, you paltry trulls of Helicon, 
Or, by this light, I'll swagger with you straight. 
You, grandsire Phcebus, with your lovely eye. 
The firmament's eternal vagabond. 
The heaven's prompter that doth peep and pry 
Into the acts of mortal tennis-balls. 
Inspire me straight with some rare delicies. 
Or I'll dismount thee from thy radiant coach. 
And make thee a poor Cutchy [coachee?] here on earth." ^ 

The romantic and swelling hyperbole of Marlowe and Chapman, 
however, with its frequent classical phraseology, soon gives 
way to a less profuse and more dramatic manner. The hyper- 
bole of Titanic insolence yields to the hyperbole of violence and 

'/ Tamhtirlaine, V ii (Works I p. 102 ; cf. similarly pp. 189, 198, etc.). 
''Parnassus, ed. Macray, p. 123. 

3 See also the reference to "three-piled hyperbole " in Biron's speech in 
Love's Labor's Lost V ii 407. 



igo METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

tragic exaggeration. Webster, for example, uses little hyperbole, 
but that little abounds in dramatic intensity : 

" Hell to my affliction 
Is mere snow-water." ' 

" In the sea's bottom sooner thou shalt make 
A bonfire." ' 

" Other sins only speak ; murder shrieks out : 
The element of water moistens the earth, 
But blood flies upward and bedews the heavens."^ 

Personification as a dramatic mode was made familiar to the 
sixteenth century English public by the morality 
Personification ..^^^ .^^^j^,, ^^ ^^ Pdlard says,^ "as tend- 

in the Drama \ ^ ,. , . . ^ ,. .^ ,. 

ing to didacticism and unreality, pcrsonihcation 

is wholly undramatic." This, of course, is to be understood 

merely of full, or formal, abstract personification. Personal 

metaphors, on the other hand, and tropes involving intense 

and emotional anthropomorphism, in themselves 

ersona ^^^ oftentimes the most dramatic of all figures. 

Metaphors 

What phrase, for example, could express more 

vividly the idea of the reproach of associates for another's coward- 
ice or degeneracy than to say : 

"the scorn of their discourse 
Turns smiling back upon your backwardness. "^ 

Figures of this class, more than any other, are the foundation 
of the true Elizabethan dramatic diction. Striking examples 
are : 

Chapman, 337a: "'fore heaven my heart shrugs at it." 
315a: "Drunkards, spew'd out of X.2i\Qxx\?>." 

97a : "never shall my counsels cease to knock 
At thy impatient ears'' 

256a: "I would your dagger's point had kiss' d xny 
heart." 

Jonson, I 299a: "His thoughts look through his words." 

'Webster, 15a. '♦Engl. Miracle Plays, Introd., p. xliii. 

^ Id. 31b. STourneur, 1 9 

3 Id. 90a. 



SUMMAR V AND CONCL USIONS. 1 9 1 

138: "the plague that treads on the heels o' your 
foppery." 

Webster, ii8b : "till the grave gather one of us." 

131a : " such a guilt as would have Iain 

Howling forever at your wounded heart, 
And rose with you to judgment." 

80a : " Sir, your direction Shall lead me by the handy 

Tourneur, I 28 : "Her modest blush fell to d. pale disliked 

Marlowe, I 223 : "the gloomy shadow of the earth . . . 

Leaps from the antarctic world into the sky." 

n 202 " O my stars. 

Why do you lour unkindly on a king?" 

Formal and abstract personification, however, is very common, 
especially in the earlier drama, where it usually takes poetical or 

classical forms. Personifications of Death, the 
Per onificatio Fates, the Furies, Fortune, Occasion, and the like, 

abound throughout Greene, Peele, and Marlowe. 
They are very prominent also in Chapman's high-tragedy style. 
Among the more dramatic poets like Webster and Tourneur 
formal personification becomes rarer and briefer, as in Webster's* 

"Lust carries her sharp whip 
At her own girdle." 

Or — " O sacred innocence, that sweetly sleeps 

On turtles' feathers, whilst a guilty conscience 
Is a black register wherein is writ 
All our good deeds and bad."^ 

Or Vindici's apostrophe in Tourneur :3 

" Sword, I durst make a promise of him to thee ; 
Thou shalt dis-heir him ; it shall be thine honor." 

Such personifications are full of meaning and dramatic force. 
The degree of feeling involved in any personification is usually 
the measure of its merit, and in the utterance of feeling personifi- 
cation never is an outworn form. Poverty of significance and of 
poetic emotion is the general characteristic of mere capital-letter 
personification, and this precisely is what distinguishes the man- 

'P. 12b. »p. 91b. 3 11, p. 33. 



192 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

ner of the English " classical " period from that of the Elizabethan 
period. 

In regard to the general range of observation and the sources 
in nature and human life from which the Eliza- 
General Range bethan dramatists included in this study draw their 

^ ^ . metaphors and similes the most striking fact to be 

of Tropes in ^ . ° 

the Drama noted is the more narrowly poetical character of 

the earlier dramatic writing and its reliance upon 
the more conventional artifices of composition, resulting in a 
much larger proportion of nature similes, and of nature similes 
handled after a more or less conventional method, than in the 
following and more dramatic period. In the treatment of nature 

indeed, although only a small part of their task, the 

^ „ ^ dramatists of the entire period seldom advance 

of Nature ^ 

beyond the conventional and ornamental manner. 

There is a tinge of the Euphuistic natural history, an odor of the 
lamp about almost all their observations of things natural. Poeti- 
cal touches are not rare, but there is little evidence of much keen- 
ness or delicacy of nature-observation.' A few examples, how- 
ever, are worth recording: Chapman 47a: 

" like the lark 

Mounting the sky in shrill and cheerful notes. 

Chanting his joys aspired." 

65b : " Like a jackdaw, that, when he lights upon 
x\ dainty morsel, kaa's and makes his brags. 
And then some kite doth scoop it from him straight." 

164a: "Here's nought but whispering with us; like a calm 
Before a tempest, when the silent air 
Lays her soft ear close to the earth to hearken 
For that she fears steals on to ravish her." 

207b: "that resembles 

The weighty and the goodly bodied eagle, 
Who, being on earth, before her shady wings 
Can raise her into air, a mighty way 
Close by the ground she runs." 

245b : "We must ascend to our intention's top 

Like clouds that be not seen till they be up."^ 
'Cf. Symonds, Essays Speculative and Suggestive, 417. 
* See also Chapman, p. 543a. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 193 

Jonson, II 490a : " turf as soft and smooth as the mole's skin." 

I 371b : " When she came in like starlight." 

Jonson, I 291b: "to present the shapes 

Of dangers greater than they are, like late 
Or early shadows." 

Marlowe, I 201 : " Thus are the coward villains fled for fear 
Like summer vapors vanished by the sun." 

Spenser's method of nature treatment, graceful and charming, 
but highly conventional, and following so strictly the poetical 
traditions, is, generally speaking, the accepted method of the 
Elizabethan drama. Spenser,' following Chaucer closely, enume- 
rates the trees contained in his Wood of Error : 

" The sailing pine, the cedar proud and tall, 
The vine-prop elm, the poplar never dry," 

and so on ; the obvious comment on which, neglecting consider- 
ation of the possible allegorical justification of the description, is 
that all these trees were never known in nature to grow together 
in one forest. In the same way Mr. J. A. Symonds* notes a 
flower passage in one of Ben Jonson's masques^ in which there is 
a similar confusion of nature's ways. The true answer to such 
criticisms perhaps is that, however much such descriptions may 
err scientifically, aesthetically they are justifiable, at least so long 
as the reader's sense of beauty is satisfied and is still untroubled 
by suggestions ab extra of discord and discrepancy.* 

The pathetic fallacy naturally is frequent in the 
The Pathetic ^^^^^^^ similes of the dramatists. A charming 
Fallacy , , ,- - 

illustration is found m one or two lines ot the 

opening speech of Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd > 

^ Fairy Queen, I i 8. Cf. also "Virgil's Gnat" (Spenser, Globe ed., p. 506), 
and the flower passage in "Muiopotmos" (p. 534). 

^'Shaks. Pred., 351. 

3 "Pan's Anniversary" (Works III 184). 

♦See Aristotle's Poetic ch. xxv : "The poet errs if what he fabricates is 
impossible according to the art itself ; but it will be right if the end of poetry 
is obtained by it." (Buckley's translation.) 

5 11 489. A similarly charming passage occurs in Shirley, The Witty Fair 
One, I ii. 



194 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

" Here she was wont to go ! and here ! and here ! 
Just where those daisies, pinks, and violets grow: 
T/ie wot'ld may find the spring by following her : 
For other print her airy steps ne'er left. 
Her treading would not bend a blade of grass, 
Or shake the downy blow-ball from his stalk! 
But like the soft west wind she shot along 
And where she went the flowers took thickest root, 
As she had sowed them with her odorous foot." 

"The flattering green " is an epithet from Lyly." 

" As when the moon hath comforted the night 
And set the world in silver of her light" 

is a couplet from Chapman.^ "The golden fawnings of the sun" 
is another phrase of his.^ His fine simile of the oak in Arden* 
has many similar touches : 

" Then, as in Arden, I have seen an oak 
Long shook with tempests, and his lofty top 
Bent to his root, which being at length made loose. 
Even groaning with his weight, he 'gan to nod 
This way and that, as loth his curled brows. 
Which he had oft wrapt in the sky with storms. 
Should stoop ; and yet, his radical fibres burst. 
Storm-like he fell, and hid the fear -cold earth.'" 

Others furnish various noteworthy illustrations of the same figure: 
Marlowe, I 46 : " Always moving as the restless spheres." 

174: " Making the meteors . . . 

Run tilti/ig round about the firmament. 
And break their burning lances in the air," 

Jonson, I 248a: 

" the loving air. 
That closed her body in his silken arms." 

I 92 : Perfumes " To keep the air in awe of her sweet nostrils." 
Tourneur, I 17 : 

" The lovely face of heaven was masqu'd with sorrow, 
The sighing winds did move the breast of earth. 
The heavy clouds hung down their mourning heads, 
And wept sad showers the day that he went hence." 

See also in Tourneur, I 40-41, the description of the weeping sea 

'I 173. "P. 227a. 3 p. 251a. *P. 148; see also p. 44Sb. 



SUM MAR V AND CONCL USIONS. 1 9 5 

embracing the body of Charleniont. But the passionate and 
imaginative appeal to the anthropomorphic instinct is nowhere 
more vividly uttered than in this apostrophe from Webster 
(p. 40b): 

" O thou soft natural death, that art joint-twin 
To sweetest slumber ! No rough-bearded comet 
Stares on thy mild departure ; the dull owl 
Beats not against thy casement ; the hoarse wolf 
Scents not thy carrion : pity winds thy corse, 
Whilst horror waits on princes." 

Most striking of ail dramatic examples of the pathetic fallacy, if 
only it were more removed from sensationalism, is Vindici's 
exclamation in The Revenger's Tragedy, V iii, on hearing a peal 
of thunder just as he and his fellow-conspirators are wreaking 
their murderous revenge : 

" Mark, Thunder ! 
Dost know thy cue, thou big-voic' d crier?'" 

In fact throughout the nature similes of the Elizabethan drama- 
tists the second term of the simile, or the aspect of nature 
brought into comparison with any given human or dramatic 
motive or idea, is usually kept subordinate, so that a vivid picture 
is seldom formed. The simile of the oak in Arden, just cited 
from Chapman, is an exception, but such exceptions are rare and 
Chapman's tragic manner at best is epic rather than dramatic. 
It is the remote or the curious or novel in nature that interest 
these poets, rather than the familiar and the deeply significant 
things such as the modern poet by preference observes. The 
Euphuistic natural history attracted them because of its romantic 
associations and of the ease with which it may be applied for 
sententious illustrations. Still the sky, the sun, the stars, clouds, 
flowers, and the like, frequently freshen the poetry of Greene 
Peele, and Marlowe. Simple images in Peele, like 

" As when of Leicester's hall and bower 
Thou wert the rose and sweetest flower," 

or " Pale, like mallow flowers," 

or " Why should so fair a star stand in a vale, 

And not be seen to sparkle in the sky?" 



196 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

are the source of half the slender grace of his lines. And there 
are a few similar touches in Greene ; for example : 
" Gracious as the morning star of heaven." 

" Thy father's hair, like to the silver blooms 
That beautify the shrubs of Africa." 

Thunder, comets, and other hyperbolical images are characteristic 
of Marlowe, but he has a few fine nature-similes : 

I 145 : " Their ensigns spread 

Look like the parti-colored clouds of heaven." 

I 179 : " My chariot, swifter than the racking clouds." 

I 179 : " The horse that guide the golden eye of heaven 

And blow the morning from their nosterils, 
Making their fiery gait above the clouds." 

II 263: " I go as whirlwinds rage before a storm." 

I 276: " Oh, thou art fairer than the evening air 
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars." 

But the range is not wide, nor is there any subtlety of obser- 
vation in the nature similes of the pre-Shaksperian drama. 
Later the poetical touches are rarer, but the range of mental 
association becomes more subtle and novel, while at the same 
time, as already remarked, the intensity of the dramatic connota- 
tion almost swallows up the nature image itself. Thus Webster, 
17a: 

" Like mistletoe on sear elms spent by weather. 
Let him cleave to her, and both rot together." 

Or 172b, 

"Thou lovest me, Appius, as the earth loves rain : 
Thou fain wouldst swallow me." 

Chapman, T47b: 

"D'Ambois, that like a laurel put in fire 
Sparkled and spit." 

Similarly Jonson, I 157 : . . . "not utter a phrase but what shalt 
come forth steeped in the very brine of conceit, and sparkle like 
salt in fire." 
Jonson, I 72a : 



SUM MA RY AND CONCL USIOXS. 1 9 7 

" Made my cold passion stand upon niy face, 
Like drops of dew on a stiff cake of ice." 

But this borders on the bizarre, as do many of Jonson's colloquial 
comparisons : 

I 266b : "like so many screaming grasshoppers 

Held by the wings, fill every ear with noise." 

I 349b : "All her looks are sweet, 

As the first grapes or cherries." 

But, generally speaking, nature is important in the drama 
only in large and conventional metaphors or as linked with man 
and human sympathies. In the Elizabethan drama, certainly, 
man was the chief center of interest, but man imaginatively con- 
ceived. Unless imagination be understood as something alien 
from human passion. Buckle's generalization' that imagination is 
most active in man chiefly when he is directly subject to the 
stimulus of natural objects and forces is not borne out by the 
dramatic literature of the age of Elizabeth. The storm and 
stress of human passion, reflected in this literature, excited men's 
imaginations throughout this period perhaps as much as they 
have ever been excited by natural phenomena in any wise. Cer- 
tain aspects of nature there were during the days of Elizabeth, 
such as the new discoveries in astronomy and geography, which 
stirred men's thoughts profoundly, but nature, in dramatic liter- 
ature at least, is reflected at second hand, and the larger part of 
its nature imagery seems borrowed from books, and especially 
from classical literature. 

In the realm of human life, on the contrary, variety and 
range of interest and keenness and subtlety of observation rapidly 

developed and extended. Novelty, appositeness. 
Treatment of , , , , , , 

Human Life ^"^ ^^''^^ ^^^ ^^^ v[\z.x\.% of t^e significant tropes 

drawn from the field of human life in the typical 
Elizabethan drama. Here at least most of the studies are made from 

'Hist, of Civilization in Engl. (N. Y., 1872), Vol. I., pp. 85 f. — e.g. 
" Under some aspects, nature is more prominent than man, under others, man 
than nature. In the former case the imagination is more stimulated than the 
understandmg, and to this class all the earliest civilizations belong. The 
imagination is excited by earthquakes and volcanoes, and by danger generally." 



198 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

the living model, and the work is rammed with life, crude and 
boisterous, tragic and passionate, or tender and noble. The early 
school, it is true, offers little evidence of close observation or 
dramatic rendering. It was the function of the university wits 
to soften and enrich the diction of the popular drama, and to 
give it certain elements of literary form. Yet in such plays as 
Peele's David and Bethsabe and Greene's yaw<?j-/rthe beginnings 
of the close observation of human life and character are evident. 
David, in the former, is an original study in passion, and Dor- 
thea and Ateukin, in the latter, are the rude prototypes of 
many of the tender and forsaken ladies and the insinuating vil- 
lains of the later drama. But the imagery of these authors 
shows little observation of human life, and consists mostly of 
conventional nature similes. Lyly with his fantastic prose and 
his lively colloquialisms is much more significant. Marlowe, of 
course, was the great originator of new dramatic forms and ideas, 
and his influence in the development of the drama of passion 
was supreme. But he is not rich in trope and his imagery 
reveals little closeness of observation of the ways of men and of 
the various aspects of human life. In Marlowe, however, the 
dramatic conception of character and of human passion and 
pathos first gathers a large and full life. Chapman in turn 
carries to an extreme the grandiose and epical tradition of trag- 
edy of Marlowe and his school, but his comedies are of another 
bent, and his metaphors and similes are as a whole wide rang- 
ing and varied and display considerable observation of life. 
Webster exhibits the finished product of the minor Elizabethan 
tragedy and in Webster and Tourneur we find a new depth and 
acuteness of psychological observation. It is difficult to cite 
elsewhere in English literature, outside of Shakspere, home- 
thrusts, flash-lights -turned upon the human heart in some of 
its states, that exceed many of the analogies and illustrations 
employed by these writers. 

Webster, 8ia: "■ Pescara. The Lord Ferdinand laughs 
Delia. Like a deadly cannon 
That lightens ere it smokes." 

S3b : '' Bosola. Your brothers mean you safety and pity. 



25a: 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 199 

The Duchess. Pity ! 

With such a pity men preserve alive '' 

Pheasants and quails, when they are not fat enough 
To be eaten." 
32a: "Best natures do commit the grossest faults, 

When they're given o'er to jealousy, as best wine, 
Dying, makes strongest vinegar." 

86b: "I am acquainted with sad misery 

As the tann'd galley-slave is v/ith his oar." 

We endure the strokes like anvils or hard steel, 
Till pain itself make us no pain to feel.'" 
91b: " Here is a sight 

As direful to my soul as is the sword 
Unto a wretch hath slain his father." 

94a: "I do not think but sorrow makes her look 
Like to an oft-dy'd garment." 

91a: " I stand like one 

That long hath ta'en a sweet and golden dream ; 
I am angry with myself, now that I wake.'" 

Tourneur, II 69: 

" Here's Envy with a poor thin cover on't, 
Like scarlet hid in lawn, easily spied through." 

II 127 : "Are not you she 

For whose infect persuasions I could scarce 
Kneel out my prayers, and had much ado. 
In three hours' reading, to untwist so much 
Of the black serpent as you wound about me ?" 

With these writers, as with Chapman and Jonson, all sides of 
human life are illustrated. The conventional in metaphor and 
simile is discarded for the novel and the strange : 

Webster, 73b: "This intemperate noise 

Fitly resembles deaf men's shrill discourse. 
Who talk aloud, thinking all other men 
To have their imperfection." 

75b: "Laboring men 

Count the clock oftenest, Cariola; 
Are glad when their task's ended." 

Or this feigned parallel for long service unrewarded (p. 78a): 



2 00 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

"Tis even like him, that in a winter night 
Ta^ces a long slumber o'er a dying fire, 
A-loth to part from't ; yet parts thence as cold 
As when he first sat down." 

Chapman, 447b: "I die Willingly as an infanty 

In Jonson illustrations of this sort are endless. The wealth 
of the Elizabethan drama in wide-ranging and new-coined meta- 
phors and similes is practically inexhaustible, and is one of the 
striking proofs of its preeminence as a literary form in the quali- 
ties of vitality, and of what may be called, if not imagination, at 
least dramatic fancy. 

It is further characteristic of this drama that its diction 

throughout is formative and fluent. There are few set forms 

and frequently recurring similes such as aiiflict the 

Diction ^ c ^-^^ ■ -^^ ^\. . ■ j 

minor poetry of the eighteenth century period. 

Conventional ^^^ earlier conventionalities of nature treatment 
and most of the tricks of expression of the six- 
teenth century poets are quickly replaced by a new and generic 
diction. It is true, however, that as the drama declines there is 
observable a tendency to crystallize many metaphorical idioms 
into definite forms. Some of these are now obsolescent ; many 
have passed into the familiar language of the day ; the most strik- 
ing ones, however, and especially those of a violent or passionate 
cast, were peculiar to this drama and have had little vogue out- 
side of it. Such metaphors as "to stab home their discontents,"' 
'* massacre his heart,"' and the like,' while frequently repeated 
in the drama, have been little used since. Other idiomatic meta- 
phors characteristic of the Elizabethan drama, as also to some 
extent of Elizabethan poetry in general, are; Spotted and 
unspotted/ Climbing, mounting ;S Cloak (with the disuse of 
cloaks in male attire the metaphor has naturally fallen into par- 
tial desuetude);* Pierce;^ Paint ;*^ note also the frequent meta- 

'Tourneur, II 139. "t Lyly, Chapman, Jonson, Ford, etc. 

^ Marlowe, I 94. 5 Lyly, Peele, Greene, Marlowe, Webster, etc. 

3 See infra, p. 209. *Lyly, Chapman, etc. 

^ Lyly, Peele, Marlowe, Chapman, etc. 

* Peele, Greene, Marlowe, Webster, Jonson, etc. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 201 

phorical use of the adjective "painted," as in Peele's phrase, 
"the painted paths of pleasant Ida,'" or Marlowe's "the painted 
spring,"^ — similarly, "enamelled";^ Print;" Melt;^ Drown — 
especially in Chapman, where its incessant use becomes an idio- 
syncrasy;* Tie, tangle, etc' A list of similarly recurrent and 
characteristic metaphors might be extended almost indefinitely.^ 
The metaphorical vocabulary of the drama was not narrow, and 
such repetitions and set comparisons as there are seldom degen- 
erate into mannerisms.' Occasionally an approved poetical 
motive from an earlier period shows a long persistency and is 
frequently repeated in various dramatic contexts. The greatest 
favorite is the conventional poetical description of woman's 
beauty, which runs through many of the dramatists.'" Jonson, 
in the fantastic tournament of compliment and courtship in Act 
V scene ii of Cynthia's Revels, presents a semi-serious burlesque 
of the manner : " You have a tongue steeped in honey, and a 
breath like a panther; your breasts and forehead are whiter than 

' Peele, I 17. * Greene, Chapman, Ford, etc. 

'Marlowe, II 156. s Marlowe, Lyly, Kyd, Webster, etc. 

3 Peele, Ford, etc. * See also Webster, Jonson, Ford, etc. 
7 Lyly, Peele, Marlowe, etc. 

^See especially; Fold, enwrap; Engine, instrument, etc.; Edge, whet, 
etc.; Poison ; Hinge ; Lock ; Mirror, glass, mould, model, etc.; To weigh, to put 
in a balance, etc. (as in Greene's "thinks King Henry's son that Margaret's 
love Hangs in th' uncertain balance of proud time ? "); To hammer (of thoughts, 
cares, etc.); Engraven on brows, sits on forehead, etc.; Lamps (of stars, of 
eyes, etc.); Scourge, whip; To sound a depth; Dowry (of beauty, etc.); Anvil; 
Branch ; Furrow ; Golden ; Map ; Mine (to undermine, etc.); Mushroom ; 
Quench ; Reap ; Rip, rip up ; Seal ; Serpent, viper, etc.; Shadow ; Shrine ; 
Sift; Smother; Snare, net, springe, etc.; Surfeit, Usher; Wound, etc. 

' By distributing the more striking metaphors under general topical head- 
ings in the preceding lists (supra, pp. 15 to 156), some indication is given of 
the significance of the choice of various peculiar classes of metaphors in the 
drama. Thus the great prevalence of certain violent and hvperbolical meta- 
phors (see infra, p. 209) is highly significant of the mental and moral atmos- 
phere of the times ; and similarly of various coarse, colloquial and repulsive 
metaphors, such as entrails, beget, to be great with, bawd, dunghill, etc. 

'"See Lyly passim, e. g., II 42 ; Greene, 154a; Webster, 8a ; Chapman, 13a, 
sob, 208b, 275b; Ford, I 124, 147, II 13, III 46, etc. 



202 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

goat's milk or May blossoms; a cloud is not so soft as your 
skin"' — and so on. And Jonson has also written the great 
classic of charming conceits of this sort in his song, 

"Do but look on her eyes, they do light 
All that love's world compriseth!" 

Characteristics of the Period Reflected in the Metaphors and Simi- 
les of the Drama. All prominent aspects of life are represented 
and reflected in this varied drama ; to name them all would but 
involve a repetition of our topical lists. A few significant phases, 
however, may be singled out for mention here. The aspects of 
the sky, of clouds and stars and the elements, especially in their 
violent manifestations, as in tempests, comets, eclipses, confla- 
grations, and the like, are perhaps the chief source of metaphors 
and similes drawn from nature. The Wordsworthian calm and 
mystic contemplation is far enough removed from the excited 
imagination of the Englishmen of this time. Next in order of 
prominence perhaps are the numerous references to animal life, 
as in Webster and Jonson. Under the miscellaneous aspects of 
life connected with man and his interests the number of tropes 
drawn from learning, books, the universities, and the like is 
remarkable. References to the stage and the drama are abun- 
dant and significant, and emphasize the literary self-conscious- 
ness of the time. Music, especially in its popular aspects, is a 
prominent theme to supply illustrations. The Elizabethan 
playwrights seem to pride themselves also on the abundance and 
facility of their references to the various professions and occu- 
pations of men. Life is studied at all points. Technical law 
terms, popular medical terms and references to diseases and to 
various remedies, the language of the merchant and the artisan, 
of the soldier, the sailor and the courtier, all are drawn upon. 
Metaphors from dress, jewels, and all sorts of male and female 
finery, illustrate the social history of the time. Had we no other 
means of information, we could infer from the metaphors of 
the drama that sports and amusements of all sorts were active 

'Jonson, I 192b; similarly 194b; cf. also 224b, 349a, and II 149b, 237-8, 
317b, 373a, 489a, 498b. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 203 

and common in the life of the Elizabethan Englishman/ 
Hunting and angling, card-playing and tennis, are frequently 
mentioned. Archery is not yet obsolete, and falconry and hawk- 
ing are still pursued. Note that falconry also is a favorite 
source of the similes of the poet Spenser. The frequent use of 
illustrations drawn from voyages, from sea life and from ships 
and the life of sailors, indicates the new interests of the nation 
in these matters. The national sense of humor and of sym- 
pathetic interest in all the idiosyncrasies of common life is 
reflected in the rich fund of colloquial and comic images 
invented by Jonson in his comedies, but appearing previously 
to some extent also in Lyly, as well as in some of Jonson's 
contemporaries, such as Chapman and others. Note what oddi- 
ties Jonson has seen in his walks about the London streets, 
which are reported in his similes. Thus, the size of a crowd he 
indicates by the saying that it was greater "than come to the 
launching of some three ships." The signs of the streets attract 
his attention: "When he is mounted," we are told of a foolish 
gallant, "he looks like the sign of the George." Of another. • 
" He treads nicely like the fellow that walks upon ropes." He 
recalls the London plague: "the bells, in time of pestilence, 
ne'er made Like noise." He has watched the bargemen on the 
Thames: "I shall see you quoited Over the bar, as bargemen do 
their billets." These, and many more of the like, are merely 
little touches of observation thrown in like marginal sketches on 
his full-sized comedy etchings of London life. 

The ethical preoccupation of the mind of the Englishman of 
the day, so different from the jaunty carelessness of the English- 
man of the Restoration comedies, is reflected 
Moralizing ^ , , . 

Tendency "'' '-"^"y vvays. Colors, used in a moral sense, 

supply many metaphors. Heaven and hell are 
frequently recurrent emblems. Devils and conjuring, perspec- 
tive-glasses and witchcraft, are the sources of many similes. 
The images of death and the grave, so abundant in Webster, 

' In Webster's White Devil (p. 24b) the young Giovanni asks his uncle : 
" What do the dead do, uncle ? do they eat. 
Hear jtnisic, go a-hunting and be merry. 
As we that live? " 



204 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

are not infrequent also in others. Death is on one side of them, 
and riotous and abundant life on the other. They live the life 
of the body in its fullness. The senses are continually in play 
and their habitual metaphors reflect this activity. The aesthetic 
senses of the eye and ear are fully alive. They are keenly awake 
to the pleasures of sight and the charms of music. But the other 
senses, too, are freely recorded. Metaphors of food, eating, thirst, 
surfeits, odors, smells, abound. On the other hand the funda- 
mental ethical questions connected with the life of the individual 
and the welfare of the human soul are perpetually touched upon 
and made prominent in the favorite comparisons and metaphors 
of the Elizabethan playwrights. I have spoken of the abundance 
of figures didactic and sententious by virtue of their very form, 
such as allegory, fable, and proverb. But many simple ineta- 
phors and similes in their subject-matter as in their application 
show the same tendency. Chapman is gnomic and moral to a 
fault. Webster is full of a gloomy and world-weary philosophy 
of life. Kyd in The Spanish Tragedy writes an inverted Hamlet. 
Marlowe's passionate eagerness about the fundamental questions 
of human sin and fate is evident to the most superficial reader of 
his Faustus. Peele in David and Bethsabe went beyond his 
powers in attempting a psychological study of temptation and 
sin. What can exceed in caustic bitterness and 
p ... . melancholy the criticisms of life conveyed in some 

of Life °^ Tourneur's, or Chapman's, or Webster's com- 

parisons : See for example Byron's dying speech' 
from Chapman's Byron's Tragedy, and many similar passages 
elsewhere in Chapman. Thus 174a: 

" Man is as a tree that hath no top in cares. 
No root in comforts ; all his power to live 
Is given to no end, but to have power to grieve." 

140b : " Man is a torch borne in the wind ; a dream 

But of a shadow, summ'd with all his substance." 

271a : "like a man 

Long buried, is a man that long hath lived : 
Touch him, he falls to ashes." 

'Supra, pp. 106. 



SC'MMAJ?V AND CONCLUSIONS. 205 

329a: "This is the inn where all Deucalion's race, 

Sooner or later, must take up their lodging. 
No privilege can free us from this prison : 
No tears nor prayers can redeem from hence 
A captived soul." 

And Tourneur, II \2\: "Joy's a subtle elf. 

I think man's happiest when he forgets himself." 

And Webster, who is full of dark and pathetic reflections on 
human life and destiny, as, for example, in the brief colloquy 
between Francesco de Medicis and his young nephew, in Vittoria 
Corombona (p. 24b): 

Giovanni: What do the dead do, uncle ? do they eat, 
Hear music, go a hunting, and be merry, 
As we that live ? 

Fran, de Med. No coz ; they sleep. 

Giov. Lord, Lord, that I were dead ! 

I have not slept these six nights. — When do they wake ? 

Fran, de Med. When God shall please'" 

Compare with this the Duchess' farewell to her son, in The 
Duchess of Malfi, III v (p. 83a): 

" Farewell, boy : 
Thou art happy that thou hast not understanding 
To know thy misery ; for all our wit 
And reading brings us to a truer sense 
Of sorrow." 

See also 47a : 

" Are you grown an atheist ? Will you turn your body, 
Which is the goodly palace of the soul. 
To the soul's slaughter-house ? O, the cursed devil. 
Which doth present us with all other sins 
Thrice-candied o'er, — despair with gall and stibium ; 
Yet we carouse it off." 

88a : "Didst thou ever see a lark in a cage ? Such is the soul 
in the body. This world is like her little turf of grass ; and the 
heaven o'er our heads, like her looking-glass, only gives us a 
miserable knowledge of the small compass of our prison." 

'See a similar passage in Beaumont and Y\t.'iz\vtx, Bondiica, IV ii, in the 
dialogue between Caratach and his young nephew Hengo. 



2o6 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

99a : " We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied 
Which way please them." 

99a-b : "In all our quest of greatness, 

Like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care. 
We follow after bubbles blown in the air. 
Pleasure of life, what is't? only the good hours 
Of an ague ; merely a preparative to rest." 

But gnomic and moral reflections of every sort are a marked 
trait of the serious drama of the entire period from Gorboduc to 
the closing of the theatres. The temperamental melancholy 
which underlies most of these moralizations is almost a national 
characteristic, seemingly recurrent in extreme manifestations at 
irregular intervals from the Anglo-Saxon period to Webster, 
from Swift to Carlyle. The reader of the Elizabethan tragedy, 
with its gloomy insistence on the darker sides of life, can more 
easily understand the motives and influences which prompted just 
at this time (1621) the preparation of Burton's curious Anatomy 
of Melancholy.' 

If the serious and melancholy cast of mind which is reflected 
in the iniagery of the dramatists of this period is a national 
trait, there are others, similarly revealed, which are 
Renaissance rather characteristic of the entire Renaissance 
Reflected in movement, although none the less congenial to the 
the Drama national temperament when roused and quickened 

by stimulating influences from without and within. 
The new sense of wonder and interest in the brave new world of 
the time and in its people, under the new life of the Renaissance, 
is one feature evident in the imagery and ideas of the new 
poetry. Far-fetched comparisons, that travel over the whole 
realm of nature and of the life of man with restless penetration, 
resulting in sudden and surprising juxtapositions of thought, are 
eagerly sought out, and quite as eagerly relished and applauded. 
The utmost fire and fullness of life, the pomp and gorgeousness 

'Note also that one Elizabethan drama, — Ford's The Lover's Melancholy 
(1628), — is directly based upon this book. See the discourse on melancholy in 
Chapman's (?) Revenge for Honor (Works p. 418); cf. lonson's Every Man in 
his Humor, III i (Works 1 25). But the Elizabethan references on melancholy 
are innumerable. Cf. Symonds, Shaks. Pred. 55-57. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 207 

of the external world, are pictured in every aspect. The inces- 
sant hyperbole and passion of this imagery, its frequent felicity, 
and its occasional lack of proportion, are indicative of a new and 
excited taste and of an unwonted rush of thoughts and feelings 
seeking representation. The artist sees too much and feels too 
intensely' to be content with the ordinary prose-utterance of 
unimaginative men. Hence he seeks for poetical and unusual 
forms, which he fills with the new inventions that come so readily 
to him. Everything is drawn upon for ornament and use, — 
classical and Italian forms, models, motives, and plots, the whole 
of ancient story and mythology, all the new discoveries of 
science, and all the new discoveries in geography.' The strong 
literary and classical coloring of the drama is as indicative of its 
Renaissance origin, as its vivid realism, its varied inventiveness, 
and its sombre passion are of its national meaning and sympathy. 
Much of the Renaissance quality, tempered with much of the 
poet's own moonlight beauty and charm, had been rendered and 
revealed during the first of these flowering years of the drama in 
Spenser's Faerie Queene. Here is the pomp and gorgeousness of 
the external world, here the classical mythology newly Avedded to 
fairy magic, here the sense of the new wonders of space and 
thought, together with the underlying seriousness and moral 
sense of the typical Englishman. But it was a poem for ideal- 
ists ; it lacked passion and penetrative power. Shakspere alone 
speaks to us the full message of the Elizabethan age. Outside of 
Shakspere we must supplement Spenser with the minor dramatists 
in order to find a chorus of poetic voices equally representative. 

The pride of life and the pleasure in costly phrases and in 
the enumeration of sensuous and gorgeous details so character- 
istic of the entire poetry of the period and so 
Costly and typical of the Renaissance is a prominent feature 

, ^ of the imagery of the dramatists. The earlier 

Images ° •' 

writers are especially fond of introducing such 

passages. Thus Greene, in the opening scene of his Orlando 

'E.g. Marlowe, I 83 : 

" We mean to travel to the Antarctic pole, 
Conquering the people underneath our feet.'' 



2o8 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. \ 

k 

Furioso, fills the speeches of the princely suitors with a profusion ' 
of pompous illustration after this manner : 

"The bordering islands, seated here in ken, \ 

Whose shores are sprinkled with rich orient pearl, j 

More bright of hue than were the margarites ■ ' 

That Caesar found in wealthy Albion ; • '.; 

The sands of Tagus, all of burnished gold, ' 
Made Thetis never prouder on the clifts 

That overpeer the bright and golden shore, ' 
Than do the rubbish of my country seas." 

Read also the sumptuous array of delicacies which Friar . 

Bacon, xxv Ft-iar Bacon and Friar Bungay, promises to provide i 
for the princes through his magic art : 

"And for thy cates, rich Alexandria drugs, I 

Fetched by carvels from Egypt's richest straits, ! 

Found in the wealthy strand of Africa, ■ 

Shall royalize the table of my king. j 

Winesricher than th' Egyptian courtesan ^ 

Quaff'd to Augustus' kingly countermatch — " | 

and so on, including sugar-cane from Candy, spices from Persia, j 

Afric dates, mirabolans of Spain, "conserves and suckets from ' 

Tiberias," and cates from Judea. Tamburlaine's illimitable spirit \ 
of geographical conquest is in a higher vein, but Greene's man- 
ner is resumed with even fuller sensuousness in Jonson, who is 

very fond of such images. "If thou wilt eat the spirit of gold, i 

and drink dissolved pearl in wine, 'tis for thee," says Deliro to : 

Fastidious Brisk \n Every Man out of his Humor. And Mosca ' 
to Voltore, in Volpone : 

"When you do come to swim in golden lard, 

Up to the arms in honey, that your chin ] 

Is borne up stiff with fatness of the flood, ^ 
Think on your vassal." 

Similarly Volpone himself : • 

1 

"Thy baths shall be the juice of July-flowers, \ 

Spirit of roses, and of violets, j 

The milk of unicorns, and panther's breath \ 

Gathered in bags, and mixed with Cretan wines. j 

Our drink shall be prepared gold and amber." { 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 209 

See also the part of Sir Epicure Mammon throughout The 
Alchemist.^ 

But passion, and passion the expression of which too often 
degenerates into hyperbole and violence, is the most striking 
feature of the serious drama of the minor Eliza- 
-. , bethans, and especially of the Tragedy of Blood, as 

Mr. J. A. Symonds has named the earlier Eliza- 
bethan tragedy.^ The extravagance which characterizes the plots 
and the catastrophes of many of the plays of Kyd, Marlowe, 
Tourneur, and others, is reflected in their use of metaphor and 
simile. For, in addition to the large amount of literary and 
elaborate hyperbole which marks the drama of the period, there 
is a sort of familiar and idiomatic hyperbole, revealing itself in 
the customary employment of startling and violent metaphors 
and comparisons, almost as matters of course. Such metaphors 
as " kill," " stab," " massacre," " drown," " smother," " rip," 
" poison," " infect," " thunder," " tempest," " eclipse," are 
extremely common.^ A tendency to similar exaggeration, more 
softened, however, by long usage, and never so seriously meant, 
has been noticed in certain familiar French idioms.'' Such meta- 
phors as "bouleverse," " assassine," " assomme," " meurtri," 
" navre," and the like, correspond in form at least very closely 
to the English examples just given. Metaphors connected with 
swords and other weapons the Elizabethans seem to use with 
peculiar frequency and emphasis. The language of warfare and 
combats is made to lack none of the violence imaginable in the 
proper situations. Thus Peele, I 112 : "make his flesh my mur- 
dering falchion's food." I 113 : "with your swords write in the 

' Cf. similarly, Shirley, The Lady of Pleasure, V i (Mermaid ed., pp. 350- 
351) ; and Massinger, The City Madam III iii. 

^ Shaks. Fred., ch. xii. 

3 Examples: Stab: Jonson, I Ii6b, 215a; Chapman, 165a; Tourneur, II 139 ; 
Kill: Chapman, 7b ("slain with our beauties"), 41a (murder) ; Marlowe, 1 94, 
II 247 (massacre), II 264 (" thou kill'st thy mother's heart "); Drown: Chapman, 
(see supra, p. 122); Webster, 34a, 142b; Jonson, I 295a, II 105a, etc.; Smother: 
Webster, 99a ("smother thy pity"), 135a; Marlowe, I 96; Chapman, 217a, etc.; 
Rip, rip up: Chapman, 109b ; Peele, I 24 (" unrip not so your shames "); Greene, 
212a; Webster, 136b, 153a, etc. 

■♦By Falkenheiner ; cited in Gerber, Die Sprache als Kunst, II 264 note. 



2IO METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Book of Time." I 238 : "Sith they begin to bathe their swords in 
bloody Marlowe, II 143: "To greet his lordship with a pon- 
iard." II 260: "I will whip you to death with my poniard's 
point." 297 : 

" Whet thy sword on Sixtus' bones, 
That it may keenly slice the Catholics." 

Tourneur, II 8: 

"Thy wrongs and mine zx^ for one scabbard fitV 

II 58: " Sword, thou wast never a back-biter yet. 

I'll pierce him to his face, he shall die looking upon me. 
Thy veins are swell'd with lust, — this shall unfill 'em." 

Webster, 125b: 

" You would have lock'd your poniard in my heart." 

Chapman, 259b: 

" My sword, that all the wars . . . 
Hath sheathed betwixt his hilt and horrid point." 

Ford, II 307: "Your sword talks an answer" (cf. Ill 32). 

The language of these dramatists is sometimes curious in 
ferocity, doing more than ample justice to a traditional concep- 
tion of the Italianate manner: Thus Chapman, i68a: 

" I'll bind his arm in silk, and rub his flesh, 
To make the vein swell, that his soul may gush 
Into some kennel." 

366b: " I stroke again at him, and then he slept. 
His life-blood boiling out at every wound, 
In streams as clear as any liquid ruby." 

441b: " Would it were possible 

To kill even thy eternity. '' 

Webster, 36b: 

" And yet methinks that this revenge is poor, 
Because it steals upon him like a thief." 

49b: " Naught grieves but that you are too few to feed 
The famine of our vengeance." 

But violent metaphors are often used to signify commoner things. 
Thus Tourneur, II 78: 



SUMMAR V AND CONCL USIONS. 2 1 1 

" Here caine a letter now 
New-bleeding from their pens." 

Webster, 76b: 

" I ivill plant my soul in mine ears, to hear you." 

Chapman, 315a: 

" Stuff' d his soul 
With damn'd opinions and unhallow'd thoughts." 

The same passionate way of feeling and speaking gives them 
sharper senses and livelier imaginations than men in quieter 
times possess. Volpone' in the midst of his villanies hears a 
noise and cries out : 

" Hark ! who's there ? 
I hear some footing ; officers, the saffi. 
Come to apprehend us ! I do feel the brand 
Hissing already at my forehead: now 
Mine ears are boring.'' 

Chapman is fond of the classical metaphor, " to eat one's 
heart.'"' The metaphor of heaping up evil on another's breast is 
another favorite of this same general stamp : 
Tourneur, H 105: 

" Hoping at last 
To pile up all my wishes on his breast." 

Chapman, 109a: 

" All the pains 
Two faithful lovers feel, that thus are parted, . . . 

... on thy heart 
Be heap'd and press'd down, till thy soul depart." ^ 

Jonson, I 17a: 

" Heap worse on ill, make up a pile of hatred." 

Other and various illustrations of the same method of utterance 
are : 

'Jonson, I 373-4. On this form of imagination in general see Longinus 
On the Sublime, XV 1-2. Further examples maybe seen in Massinger, A New 
Way to Pay Old Debts, IV ii 17-22, and Beaumont and Fletcher, Thierry and 
Theodoret, I i (Mermaid ed. I p. 297). 

zChapman, l6ib, 176b, 217a. 

3 See also Chapman, 157b, 175b. 



212 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

Marlowe, II 217: "C/>//5^7£'^/ straight this breast." 

Webster, 12b: "Spit thy poison." 

44b: " I am falling to pieces." 

Chapman, 176a: " Her wounds 

Manlessly digg'd in her." 

Tourneur, II 22: "O, one incestuous W^'i picks open Hell.'''' 

II 59: "O, there's a wicked whisper ; hell is in his ear J'' 

II 74: "Make him curse and swear, and so die black.'''' 

We have thus reviewed in some of their more striking mani- 
festations the leading forms of metaphor and simile characteristic 
of the minor Elizabethan playwrights, emphasizing 

x.^°* -^ , X- some of the more dramatic types and peculiarities 
Recapitulation -' ^ ^ 

of imaginative diction. We have noted the general 

range of observation and the main sources in nature and in 
human life commanded by these writers. A few of the chief 
characteristics of the period, illustrating, in Charles Lamb's 
phrase,' " what may be called the moral sense of our ancestors," 
as reflected in their choice of illustration and trope, consciously 
or unconsciously made, have received brief special mention. The 
didactic and moralizing tendency of the early dramatists, their 
love of literary and classical ornament, their attitude towards 
Nature, their treatment of common life, the prominence with 
them of the senses and of coarse and colloquial images, their 
abundance in the rich coloring and their profuse employment 
of the pomp and fire and fullness of life of the Renaissance, their 
conception of the passions and their methods of rendering them 
— all these things as entering into the imagery of the minor 
Elizabethan drama have been touched upon. This drama was 
the most vital and the most popular form of literature existing 
in its day. Its significance and its greatness lie above everything 
else in its showing of strenuous character in strenuous action. 
In music and rhythm of verse it is not supreme. There is noth- 
ing in it to correspond to the choral odes of the Greek drama. 
In structure of plot and in narrative felicity it is often deficient. 
' Specimens, Preface, p. iv. 



SUMMAR V AND CONCL USION. 2 1 3 

In dignity and power of imaginative language it is uneven and 
careless, however vivid and fresh and forcible is its diction. Its 
interest is centered too narrowly in the life of the individual and 
in the reaction of personal forces and passions. But in this 
special sphere it presents an imaginative transcript of life, for 
uncompromising fidelity, for tragic and romantic feeling, for 
strenuous reality, hardly rivaled in the world's literature. These 
qualities are adequately reflected in the metaphor and simile 
employed in this drama. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 

TEXTS OF THE DRAMATISTS. 

George Chapman, Plays, ed. R. H. Shepherd, London 1874, pp. 1-340, 351-380. 

Robert Greene, Dramatic and Poetical Works of Greene and Peele, ed. Dyce, Lon- 
don, 1861. (Greene pp. 1-320.) 

GoRBODUC, or Ferrex and Porrex : in The Works of Thos. Sackville, ed. R. 
W. Sackville-West, London 1859 (pp. 1-92). 

Ben Jonson, Works, ed. Gifford and Cunningham, London [1876], 3 vols. Vol. 

1 PP- 463; vol. II pp. 1-515. 

Thomas Kyd : Jeronimo, in vol. IV pp. 345-396, and T/ie Spaiiis/i Tragedy, in 

vol. V pp. 1-173 of Dodsley's Collection of Old English Plays, ed. W. C. Haz- 

litt, London 1874. 
John Lyly, Dramatic Works, ed. F. \N . Fairholt, 2 vols. London 1858 ; pp. 298, and 

284. 
Christopher Marlowe, Works, ed. A. II. Bullen, 3 vols. Boston 1885; vols. I 1-283, 

II 1-298. 
George Peele, Works, ed. A. H. Bullen, 2 vols. Boston 1888; vols. I pp. 1-347, II 1-86. 
Cyril Tourneur, Plays and Poems, ed. J. C. Collins, 2 vols. London 1878; vols. I 

pp. 1-155,11 1-150. 
John Webster, Works, ed. Dyce, London 1859; pp. 1-180. 

GENERAL REFERENCES. 

E. A. Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, London 1879. 
Aristotle, Rhetoric, translated J. E. C. Welldon, London 1886. 

— Rhetoric and Poetic, translated T. Buckley, (Bohn) London 1890. 
Beaumont and Fletcher, Works, ed. Dyce, New York 1890, 2 vols. 

— Best Plays, ed. Strachey (Mermaid Series), London 1893. 

2 vols. 

A. Biese, Das Metaphorische in der dichterischen Phantasie, Berlin 18S9 (pp. 35). 

F. Brinkmann, Die Metaphern, Bonn 1878. 

S. Brooke, Primer of English Literature, New York 1879. 

E. B. Browning, Poetical Works, New York 1885, 5 vols. 

F. Brunetiere, Nouvelles Questions de Critique, Paris 1890. 

H. T. Buckle, History of Civilization in England, 2 vols. New York 1872. 
E. Burke, Works, Boston 1881 ; vol I 67-262, On the Sublime and Beautiful. 
T. Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets, London 1845. 

Chalmers and Johnson, eds., The Works of the English Poets, London 1810, 21 vols. 
Chaucer, Complete Works, ed. Skeat, Oxford 1894, 6 vols. 
S. T. Coleridge, Miscellanies, /Esthetic and Literary, London (Bohn) 1885. 

215 



2i6 METAPHOR AND SIMILE. 

J. P. Collier, History of English Dramatic Poetry to the Time of Shakespeare, 3 vols. 

London 1879. 
Dryden, Works, ed. Scott and Saintsbury, Edinburgh 1883 (vols. V and VI). 

F. G. Fleay, Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1 559-1 642, 2 vols. London 

1891. 
John Ford, Works, ed. Gifford and Dyce, 3 vols. London 1869. 

G. Gerber, Die Sprache als Kunst, 2 vols., 2d. ed., Berlin 1885. 

E. Gosse, The Jacobean Poets, New York 1894. 

— Seventeenth Century Studies, 2d. ed., London 1885. 

H. E. Greene, A Grouping of Figures of Speech (reprinted from the Publications of 
the Modern Language Association of America, N. S. vol. I no. 4), Baltimore 
1893. 

F. B. Gummere, The Anglo-Saxon Metaphor, Halle 1881. 

— Old English Ballads, Boston 1894. 

H. Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, 

and Seventeenth Centuries, 4 vols, in 2, New York 1886. 
Wm. Hazlitt, Miscellaneous Works, 3 vols. Boston N. D. 

E. Hennequin, La Critique Scientitique, 2d. ed., Paris 1890. 

Henry Home, Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism, 2 vols., Edinburgh 1807. 

Leigh Hunt, Imagination and Fancy, London 1883. 

R. Hurd, Works, London 181 1, 8 vols. 

R. C. Jebb, Attic Orators, London 1893, 2 vols. 

— Introduction to Homer, Boston 1893. 

F. Klaeber, Das Bild bei Chaucer, Berlin 1893. 

Charles Lamb, Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets who lived about the Time 

of Shakespeare, London (Bohn) 1854. 
Landmann, Euphues, Heilbronn 1887. 
Longinus, On the Sublime, trans. Havell, London 1890. 
J. R. Lowell, The Old English Dramatists, Boston 1892. 

— Works, Riverside edition, 10 vols., Boston 1892. 
Massinger, Plays, ed. Gifford and Cunningham, London [1872]. 

A. Mezieres, Predecesseurs et Contemporains de Shakespeare 3d. ed., Paris 188 1. 

— Contemporains et Successeurs de Shakespeare, 3d ed., Paris 1881. 
Wm. Minto, Manual of English Prose Literature, Boston 1891. 

— Characteristics of English Poets from Chaucer to Shirley, Boston, 
1889. 

Max Muller, The Science of Thought, New York 1887. 

The Pilgrimage to Parnassus, with the Two Parts of the Return from Parnassus, 

ed. W. D. Macray, Oxford 1886. 
A. W. Pollard, English Miracle Plays, Moralities, and Interludes, Oxford 1890. 
Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria; in Nisard's Collection des Auteurs Latins, 

Paris 1875. 
Retrospective Review, 16 vols., 3 series, 1820-6, 1828, 1853-4. 
A. W. Schlegel, Dramatic Art and Literature, trans. Black, London (Bohn) 1889. 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 217 

Shakspere, Works, ed. W. A. Wright (The Cambridge Shakspere) London and 

New York 189 1-3, 9 vols. 
L. A. Sherman, Analytics of Literature, Boston 1893. 
J. Shirley, Best Plays, ed. E. Gosse (Mermaid Series), London 18S8. 
Sidney, Defense of Poesy, ed. A. S. Cook, Boston 1890. 

- Poems, ed. Grosart ("Early English Poets"), London 1877, 3 vols. 
Herbert Spencer, The Philosophy of Style (with notes). New York 1891 (pp. 55). 
Edmund Spenser, Complete Works, ed. Morris and Hales (Globe ed.), London 1890. 
A. C. Swinburne, Essays and Studies, London 1888. 

— A Study of Ben Jonson, London 1889. 

<^eorge Chapman, a Critical Essay, London 1875; also in the 
Poems and Minor Translations of Chapman, London 1S7S. 
J. A. Symonds, Shakspere's Predecessors in the English Drama. London 1S84. 

— Ben Jonson (" English Worthies" Series), New York 1886. 

— Introduction to Webster and Tourneur, in Mermaid ed., London 1 888. 

— Essays Speculative and Suggestive, New York 1894. 

— In the Key of Blue and other Prose Essays, London and New York 
1803. 

H. A. Taine, History of English Literature, translated H. Van Laun, 2 vols. New 

York 1872. 
\. Tennyson, Works, New York and London 1893. 
A. H. Tolman, The Style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry (reprinted from the Transactions 

of the Modern Language Association, vol. Ill, 1887). 
H. Ulrici, Shakspeare's Dramatic Art, translated L. Dora Schmitz, 2 vols., London 

(Bohn) 1892. 
T. H. Ward, ed.. The English Poets, 4 vols., London and New York 1880. 
A. W. Ward, History of English Dramatic Literature, 2 vols., London 1875. 
Thos. Warton, History of English Poetry, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 4 vols., London 1871. 
Webster and Tourneur, Best Plays, ed. J. A. Svmonds (Mermaid Series) London 

1888. 
E. A. Whipple, Literature of the Age of Elizabeth, Boston 1891. 
Thomas W'ilson, The Arte of Rhetorique [London] 1553. 
Henry Wood, T. L. Beddoes, a Survival in Style (in American Journal of Philology 

IV 445-455). 



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